Brand Experience and Activation > Retail Experience & Activation

GHOST CAMPAIGN

DAVID, Madrid / BURGER KING / 2024

Awards:

Bronze Cannes Lions
CampaignCampaignLayout(opens in a new tab)
Case Film
Presentation Image
1 of 0 items

Overview

Credits

OVERVIEW

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

We created a completely new activation, which had never been seen before in advertising.

-In today's times all brands create expensive and very complex activations to connect with the public to make their brand more relevant. We do this in a way that no one has ever done before; with an invisible activation.

-People had to photograph any place where they thought there was an invisible ad, share it on social media and then our “psychic” would visualize what free product was there. The absurdity and fun of the campaign led to thousands of people taking up our challenge.

Please provide any cultural context that would help the Jury understand any cultural, national or regional nuances applicable to this work.

The Ghost Campaign strategically used Halloween themes and traditions, social media participation and pop culture references to craft a campaign that was both timely and engaging to its target audience. By tapping into these cultural contexts, Burger King effectively connected with consumers, fostered brand engagement, and created memorable experiences.

Background

Halloween is a unique opportunity for Burger King to connect with consumers who love playful experiences, all while strengthening brand loyalty.

The occasion is a big deal for the brand, which is why they roll out Halloween campaigns every year.

This time around, they wanted to launch a campaign to amp up brand excitement and boost sales during Halloween. But there was a challenge: $0 production budget.

Describe the creative idea

Last Halloween, we did something never seen before: an invisible campaign - just like ghosts.

How? We encouraged people to take photos of empty places as if Burger King ads were there and share them on X (Twitter) tagging Burger King with #ISeeBurger (#EnOcasionesVeoBurger)

Then, our "psychic" joined the fun, revealing which free product was in each invisible ad, from Whoppers to Long Chickens to Big Kings.

Despite there being nothing to see, people embraced the challenge, of "seeing" our ads everywhere: in buildings, TVs, football stadiums, churches, boats, videogames, you name it.

Describe the strategy

Due to the non-existent budget both in terms of production and media, the strategy was to create a clever and irreverent campaign that could make up for this.

To do this we used humor as the core of the idea, taking it to the limit. So much so that we ended up creating a completely invisible campaign (like a ghost) encouraging people to interact and participate and make our ghost ads completely real.

Describe the execution

On Halloween night, we launched a short video on social media announcing the promotion and encouraging people to "watch" and share our ghost ads.

People would share these phantom ads on X (Twitter), and our “psychic” would visualize what free promotion they had and give them their code.

We didn't actually place any ads, but people "saw" them in a lot of different cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Santiago...

List the results

With a budget of $0 we achieved:

-Thousands of participations.

-Promotional codes sold out.

-Most engaged activation of the year at Burger King Spain.

-99% positive sentiment.

-6% more sales than in the previous year.

-Millions of dollars saved on media.

More Entries from Retail Promotions & Competitions in Brand Experience and Activation

24 items

Grand Prix Cannes Lions
THE FIRST EDIBLE MASCOT

Live Brand Experience or Activation

THE FIRST EDIBLE MASCOT

POP-TARTS, WEBER SHANDWICK

(opens in a new tab)

More Entries from DAVID

24 items

Grand Prix Cannes Lions
MEET MARINA PRIETO

B2B Influencer Marketing

MEET MARINA PRIETO

JC DECAUX, DAVID

(opens in a new tab)