When Kanye West tweeted “McDonalds is my favourite restaurant” – Burger King didn’t back off… we went all in.

A simple three worded response - Explains a lot – captured the mood of the Internet towards Kanye West and trolled their longstanding rival at the same time – exploding across Twitter and the media.

This was a genuine pop culture moment that was featured in over 200 global media outlets, reaching a half a billion people, almost $6 million earned media – and created the most liked tweet by a brand of all time with over 1 million likes!

Burger King was looking to connect with a young, millennial / Gen Z audience and needed to win the attention and respect of this hard to reach group.

Social media was to be the battleground - and we needed a point of view, attitude and perspective that would make us stand out from the crowd.

Burger King has a longstanding history of trolling rival McDonalds. It is a way of showcasing product superiority, pushing a more engaging tone of voice with the desired target audience – and of course, having a little fun.

Burger King’s overarching goal in social is to connect with popular culture moments to reach and engage with our audience.

So when Kayne tweeted his love for McDonalds – Burger King was ready.

Normally, when a competitor is given public love by a superstar you back off. Grit your teeth and leave them to it. But not Burger King. The brand went all in and transformed a potential PR headache into its biggest social activation of 2018…

The three worded response - Explains a lot – flame grilled both Kanye West and McDonalds in what has become the most liked tweet by a brand of all time.

It said everything about their rival without saying too much.

It summed up the mood of the internet towards Kanye and his increasingly suspect judgement calls. This was about putting Burger King right in the heart of popular culture…

We developed an audience-based proposition for Burger King on social that was based on creating a simple reaction; we wanted our fans to see our content and say “Yes Burger King!”.

Yes, only Burger King would dare do this.

Yes, Burger King understands me and my world.

And Yes - Burger King is the brand for me.

We had established a new social media presence and developed a unique tone of voice for the brand - and were quickly getting a reputation with our audiences.

A key aspect of our approach was a realtime social listening programme to engage in directly relevant conversations that impact the brand.

When a global superstar shares public love for your main rival – most brands retreat and steer well clear of the activity.

The activation (launched 5 November 2018) relied 100% on the power of the idea – using only organic reach across both social networks and earned media.

This was a simple yet powerful activation that cost literally nothing to achieve but delivered a huge impact for Burger King.

All it took was confidence, a little bravery and some quick thinking.

With zero paid media – the tweet, Explains a lot, travelled across the globe – with people sharing, tweeting and reporting on Burger King trolling both Kanye West and McDonalds across social media.

Over 200 media outlets including TV, print and online media such as The Daily Mail, The Sun, Fox News added to the conversation – as did youth titles that directly engage with our audiences NME, Esquire and Cosmo.

Explains a lot became the most liked tweet by a brand of all time – achieving over 1 Million likes!

All the conversation was 100% positive from fans and media alike.

Included below are further stats and sources from the activity.

- Over 1 Million likes (Source Twitter) – the most liked brand tweet of all time.

- 270K+ retweets (Source Twitter) – driving a huge reach of advocates.

- 1.8 Million engagements (Source Twitter) – demonstrating huge brand love.

- 47 Million Twitter impressions (Source Twitter) - showing the size of the conversation that was truly popular.

- $5,935,076.00 Media value (Source Cision) - from just three words, this was a colossal amount of earned media.

- 536,769,063 Media reach (Source Cision)

- 1.5 Billion impressions (Source Cision)

And global fan love for Burger King with almost universal positive sentiment.

Further breakdown of the coverage (Source Cision) broken down by medium, recorded between 5 November 2018 and 2 January 2019:

- Broadcast: 6 news items, reach 235,867, publicity value $33,209.00

- Online: 231 news items, reach 534,709,648 and publicity value $5,881,806.13

- Print: 13 news items, reach 1,823,548, publicity value $20,059.03

Total: 250 news items, reach 536,769,063, publicity value $5,935,074.16

Refer to supporting documents to see media coverage details.

Some of the Global headlines included:

"Burger King slams Kayne West" Fox News

"Burger King just savaged both McDonalds and Kayne West" Mail Online

"Burger King roasted Kayne West on Twitter" Fast Company