The Whopper Detour had one main KPI: app downloads –– because fast-food mobile ordering is projected to be a $38 billion industry by 2020. But Burger King was late to the game, relaunching its app with order-ahead functionality in 2018.

So, we went against marketing norms, and a bit “indirect,” by sending our customers to our biggest competitor; offering a 1-cent Whopper that people could only order at McDonald’s, through the BK App. This gamified the promotion, bringing fans in on the joke in a fun and memorable way.

In 2015, only 11% of fast-food consumers placed an order using a mobile app, compared to nearly 40% in 2018. And by 2020, mobile ordering is poised to generate $38 billion in sales.

Realizing the need to fully capitalize on this, and being late to the game vs. the rest of the category, Burger King overhauled its mobile app to offer order-ahead functionality.

Being last to the party, Burger King had to do something radical to garner attention, engage consumers, and give them a reason to download the BK App.

McDonald’s outnumbers BK restaurants 2-to-1 in the U.S. So, in the spirit of Burger King’s challenger mentality, we didn’t have a traditional direct approach. Nor did we simply troll McDonald’s. We turned our biggest competitor’s advantage into our own, by turning their restaurants into touchpoints of our campaign, directing consumers to order a 1-cent Whopper that could be ordered only “at” McDonald’s through the new BK App.

To do this, we geofenced 14,000 McDonald’s stores nationwide, targeting any customer who happened to be within 600 ft. of a McDonald’s. This unlocked the promotion on the BK App, and once the 1-cent Whopper was ordered, the app then navigated them to the nearest BK for pickup. It was a mind twist that had to be perfectly executed to keep the user experience seamless so that consumers could join in on the fun.

Millennials and Gen Z grew up with tech, so getting real estate on their phones is key for Burger King’s long-term strategy. We know they don’t watch linear TV and are skeptical of marketing. They don’t visit BK restaurants as often as their parents, nor do they think BK is particularly “cool.” They seek experiences and brands that are real and authentic –– something the QSR industry is battling as a whole. It was imperative for us to bring our target in as part of the promo activation –– tapping into the social nature of trolling and gamifying the redemption experience, by simultaneously tapping into burger culture and the subversive nature of secret menus and the like.

All tactics had a consistent message and articulation of the complex idea: All drove people to download the BK App.

The Whopper Detour was a 9-day mobile app promotion by Burger King, running

12/04/18 to 12/12/18. The offer was available nationwide in the U.S. (not valid in Alaska and Hawaii) at participating BK restaurants and it unlocked at over 14,000 geofenced McDonald’s restaurants.

We primarily leveraged social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram); targeted digital display through Foursquare and Waze; and high-impact traditional placements with guerrilla OOH and a New York Post full-page print ad.

During the 9-day promotion, The Whopper Detour garnered 3.5 billion impressions, an 818% increase in Twitter mentions for the brand, and $40 million in earned media. The app was downloaded 1.5 million times and ranked #1 on both iOS and Google Play app stores for several days, beating out the likes of Facebook, Amazon, YouTube, and Instagram. The PR success translated into business results: Burger King saw the highest foot traffic in over 4 years. Despite the fact that Whopper sandwiches were going for only a penny, the total sales value sold through the mobile app increased by 3x during the promotion, and has doubled ever since, a result 40x bigger than BK’s historical digital promo record. Overall, the campaign yielded an ROI of 37:1. This shows that even though the promotion was a mind twist, the seamless user experience prevailed.

Burger King is known for bold marketing tactics. And for trolling its biggest rival, McDonald’s. As the category leader, McDonald’s enjoys advantages such as high brand awareness, iconic familiarity, a large marketing budget, and over 14,000 restaurants in the U.S. to Burger King’s 7,000. But true to Burger King’s spirit as a challenger brand, we came up with an idea that would leverage McDonald’s popularity and “bigness” against them.

This idea was uniquely powerful, as it was bigger than just trolling. It was designed to solve a business problem, as fast-food mobile ordering is predicted to be a $38 billion industry by 2020 and BK was lagging behind its competitors.

So, to sharpen its competitive edge and get consumers to download the BK App, the answer was The Whopper Detour: a 1-cent Whopper people could order only “at” McDonald’s through the newly updated BK mobile app.