Tag: burger king

Burger King Burn that Ad

In Brazil, Burger King and ad agency David SP use augmented reality to “burn” competitors’ ads through consumers’ mobile phones. The reward is simple and immediate. Participate, and you earn a free Whopper.

Burger King expects to give away 500,000 Whoppers through the promotion, pushing more people to use Burger King Express, the service that lets customers pre-order food for pickup.

How “Burn that Ad” works

The mechanic turns rival advertising into a trigger. You point your phone at a competitor’s ad, the experience “burns” it in AR, and the payoff is a Whopper coupon. It is a direct, product-first incentive tied to a single action.

Why the reward is the strategy

This is not a brand-film play. It is a behavioural exchange. The customer does something specific in the moment, and Burger King pays them back with something they value immediately. That makes participation scalable beyond the novelty of AR.

The operational goal: Burger King Express

The giveaway is not only about footfall. It is designed to drive adoption of pre-order pickup via Burger King Express. The campaign builds a reason to try the service, not just the product.

What to steal

  • Turn a competitor’s presence into your acquisition trigger, without relying on complicated steps.
  • Keep the action simple and the reward tangible.
  • Link the incentive to an operational behaviour you want to scale, such as pickup pre-order adoption.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “Burn that Ad”?

A Burger King Brazil promotion that uses augmented reality to “burn” competitors’ ads on mobile phones and reward participants with a free Whopper.

What is the incentive?

A free Whopper, delivered via the promotion’s reward mechanic.

How many Whoppers does Burger King plan to give away?

500,000.

What business behaviour does it push beyond the giveaway?

Using Burger King Express to pre-order food for pickup.

Burger King Truckvertising

Due to strict laws, reportedly around 13,000km of the German motorway network is ad-free. So to convince truckers in Germany to buy freshly grilled Whoppers, Burger King and agency Grabarz & Partner create ads that only truckers can see. The ads sit on the roof of multiple cars that take turns overtaking trucks.

The cars do not just show an ad. They run a sequence of messages that feels like a conversation from the road:

  • “Hey, you up there!”
  • “You look hungry!”
  • “Why don’t you try out the Whopper?”
  • “Fresh and flame grilled”

Once the first few cars get the truckers’ attention, the remainder guides them to the next Burger King, turning the motorway into a moving funnel:

  • “If yes, then wink”
  • “Follow me to Burger King”

As a result, many truckers give in to temptation and follow the cars to the next XXL Burger King Drive-In.

The constraint that forces the creativity

The starting point is the limitation. Large parts of the German motorway network are ad-free, so the classic roadside billboard play is unavailable at scale.

The execution is “roof media” plus choreography

Burger King turns overtaking cars into a media surface and a delivery system. Roof placements ensure the message is visible from the truck cab. A rotating set of cars keeps the sequence going long enough to land.

The craft is the choreography. It is not one clever line. It is a paced interaction that escalates from attention, to appetite, to direction.

Why this works as shopper marketing in motion

This is direct response built into a live environment. The target is already in a vehicle. The call-to-action is a drive-in. The next best action is physically nearby, and the message literally leads the way.

It also respects context. Truckers are not asked to scan, click, or search. They are asked to notice, react, then follow.

What to steal

  • Start with a hard constraint and treat it as a design brief, not a blocker.
  • Use a format the audience cannot ignore in their context, in this case overhead visibility from a cab.
  • Build a sequence that moves from attention to action, not a single punchline.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “Truckvertising” in one line?

Car-roof ads overtake trucks on ad-free motorways, deliver messages to truckers, then guide them to the next Burger King drive-in.

Why put the ad on the roof?

Because the goal is visibility from the truck cab.

What is the conversion mechanic?

A staged sequence of overtaking cars that gets attention, then provides directions to the next Burger King.

What is the underlying business aim?

To drive immediate, local store visits and Whopper purchase intent from a high-propensity audience in transit.

Burger King: Anti Pre-Roll Pre-Roll

Turning the internet’s biggest annoyance into the idea

In global fast-food marketing, the smartest digital work often starts with a blunt truth the audience already feels. Burger King’s take on pre-roll irritation is a clean example of that approach.

Pre-rolls on YouTube are considered as one of the most annoying things on the internet. It is a fact that even Burger King acknowledges, even though they profit enormously from them.

So for their campaign in New Zealand they decided to take a slightly different approach. They created 64 videos that made fun of the annoying pre-rolls and then tailored it to the video that was about to be watched.

How 64 tailored pre-rolls made interruption feel relevant

The mechanism was contextual creative at scale.

Instead of running one generic pre-roll, Burger King produced a library of short spots designed to match the viewer’s intent. The pre-roll referenced the type of content about to play, making the interruption feel less random and more like a commentary on the moment.

That shift matters because it changes the viewer’s question from “how fast can I skip?” to “what are they going to say about this one?”

Why self-aware interruption can win attention

Pre-roll is hated because it steals time.

This idea reduced that emotional tax by acknowledging the annoyance and using humor to create alignment with the viewer. When a brand says what people are already thinking, it earns a small amount of trust. Tailoring the message to the next video adds a second reward: relevance.

In other words, it does not remove the interruption. It makes the interruption entertaining enough to tolerate.

The business intent behind mocking the format

The intent was to keep the media advantage of pre-roll while reducing the brand penalty that comes with it.

By turning the format itself into the joke, Burger King aimed to increase watch time, reduce skip reflex, and improve brand sentiment. The audience still gets interrupted. But they feel understood, and that changes how the brand is remembered.

What to steal for your next video campaign

  • Start with a shared frustration. If the audience already dislikes the format, acknowledge it instead of pretending it is fine.
  • Make relevance the reward. Contextual tailoring can turn an interruption into a moment of curiosity.
  • Scale with a clear template. A creative system. Many variants. One consistent joke structure.
  • Earn seconds, not impressions. In pre-roll, attention quality is the real KPI.

A few fast answers before you act

What did Burger King do differently with pre-roll in New Zealand?

They created 64 pre-roll videos that mocked the annoyance of pre-roll and tailored the message to the video the viewer was about to watch.

What was the core mechanism?

A library of contextual creative variants designed to match viewer intent, making the interruption feel relevant and humorous.

Why does self-aware humor work in an interruptive format?

Because it aligns the brand with what viewers already feel, reducing irritation and increasing willingness to watch.

What business goal did this support?

Improving attention quality and sentiment while still benefiting from the reach and placement of pre-roll media.

What is the main takeaway for brands?

If you cannot remove an interruption, redesign it so the audience gets a payoff. Relevance and humor are two of the fastest payoffs available.