A simple poll turned into a Twitter storm when the Burger King UK social team simply asked the question “Which is better, tomatoes or gherkins?”

Within a matter of hours, the Tweet became a viral cultural moment as football fans engaged in the conversation to denounce their love for the England international. Our team capitalised on the opportunity by engaging with influencers, like @ToonPolls, hundreds of brands and even the big man himself to make it the #1 Twitter trend and ensure there were two words on everyone’s lips – Nick Pope.

As part of our ongoing social retainer with Burger King UK, we are always looking for reactive opportunities to get the brand noticed on Twitter. Playing to the passion points associated with Burger King's audience, we engaged football fans.

Our ultimate goal is always the same: to create a moment in popular culture and get Burger King UK trending on Twitter.

The tweet that started it all: As part of our hub content for Burger King UK, we posted a poll at 1.28pm on Friday, August 21st, asking fans to vote for which was better: tomato or gherkin?

A left field response: @ToonPolls, a Twitter account run by zealous Newcastle United Football Club supporters with 21,000 followers, responded with an alternative option ‘Nick Pope’, referencing the NUFC goalkeeper.

Shortly after 3pm, we tweeted ‘Nick Pope’ in a message that gained more than 3,000 likes and 500 retweets in less than an hour. This tweet organically attracted 4M impressions and 155K engagements!

This opened the flood gates, triggering a deluge of replies from fans tweeting ‘Nick Pope’, filling Burger King UK’s comments.

Our strategy always has and always will be to make Burger King UK part of everyday popular culture and get involved in social conversations - which isn’t overly branded and goes beyond burgers and food. Using the strategic line 'Yes Burger King!', we want followers to know that Burger King understands them and their world.

We knew our poll was blowing up into something big but we wanted it to be bigger! We notified Burger King and connected with the admins at ToonPolls, NUFC, and Nick Pope’s agent, asking them to quote tweet Burger King UK. We kept in contact with them throughout the remainder of the day, looking for opportunities to build on the moment and maintain momentum. 

Other brands jumped on the bandwagon including Domino’s, Specsavers, easyjet, Dunelm, Amazon and Quality Street who all saw the opportunity to get involved.

On Friday, August 12th, Newcastle United goalkeeper Nick Pope was on everyone’s lips across social media, but not for his on-field performance. 

The relationship we have with Burger King is long standing and built on extensive brand knowledge, fast moving moments and trust in our social expertise. Our in house editorial team are constantly scanning all social channels for opportunities for our clients to get involved in cultural moments. When this opportunity was spotted, we used our reactive team WhatsApp group to share the idea and gain client approval, within 30 minutes the idea was signed off and live on Twitter.

Twitter trends can live and die in a matter of hours, so time was of the essence.

As well as driving a 252% increase in positive interactions for Burger King UK on Twitter, the campaign also spilled out into national press and broadcast.

- Burger King UK (and Nick Pope) trended at Number #1 on Twitter 

- Burger King UK trended at Number #9 on Twitter global trends  

- The activity attracted 136M impressions 

- Burger King UK saw a mind-blowing 10,570% increase in mentions (week on week) 

- The BKUK Twitter account added 5.7k followers (usual monthly increase = 500 followers) 

- Positive sentiment for BKUK increased by 252% 

- For Walkers, Dreams and Deliveroo, tweeting ‘Nick Pope’ resulted in their biggest organic tweet this year 

- National press: The quirky trending moment spilled over into the press, with a clean sweep of earned media, including Daily Mail, The Sun, Indy, Evening Standard, BBC, ITV, SkySports and Daily Star to name a few. It had become the ultimate water cooler moment and boosted the activity WAY beyond social, with extensive mentions in some of the UK’s biggest dailies.