What do you do when a global superstar gives brand love to your main rival…?

Most brands back off – but not Burger King.

We went all in when Kanye West tweeted his love for McDonalds creating global news headlines.

The response tweet by Burger King – Explains a lot - was a simple yet powerful activation that took confidence and a little bravery and became a true pop culture moment.

And it has also become the most like tweet by a brand… of all time!

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 was looking to connect with a young, millennial audience and to win the attention and respect of this hard to reach group – using popular culture to drive conversation.

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.

When Kayne West tweeted: “McDonalds is my favourite restaurant” – we knew what to do…

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…

When Kanye tweeted “McDonalds is my favourite restaurant” – we flame grilled him and our longstanding rival with three words…. “Explains a lot”

This said everything without saying too much.

It summed up the mood of the internet towards Kanye and his increasingly suspect judgement calls.

And it set the scene for a global conversation…!

We developed an overarching 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 knew how our audience was viewing Kanye West through social listening – they loved his music but found his opinions questionable.

By playing with such an iconic celebrity in such a controversial way – we set the scene for huge levels of engagement and conversation with media and across social.

The activation was a real time response on Twitter and relied 100% on organic reach across both social and earned media.

This was a simple yet powerful activation that cost literally nothing to achieve.

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 across social media.

We achieved over 200 pieces of earned media coverage across TV, print and online media with titles including The Daily Mail, The Sun, Fox News adding to the conversation – as did titles that directly engage with our millennial / Gen Z audiences NME, Esquire and Cosmo.

This was a truly global activation with coverage secured across the world.

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