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This early November, we were surprised by Burger King. Their latest social media campaign was a shout-out to McDonald’s. Yes, you read that right. In Burger King’s latest marketing campaign, they shone the spotlight not on themselves, but on another fast food chain. But it wasn’t just McDonald’s — Burger King asked their loyal customers to patronise other fast food chains as well. Such an unconventional marketing method cause the campaign to soon become viral.

More than a just shoutout

Many people who read Burger King’s campaign poster believe that it is in fact acceptable behaviour from Burger King to give a shoutout to their competitors. The reason behind such a move was due to the F&B industry being hit hard with the recent pandemic. Many fast food outlets had to stop operating in order to keep the business alive, which meant that many employees lost their jobs. Burger King’s campaign therefore gave courage to people around the world; to support each other through difficult times.

But some people believe that Burger King’s marketing campaign goes beyond just a simple shoutout. Marketing experts dub Burger King’s strategy as “Evangelism Marketing”.

Evangelism Marketing is commonly known as word of mouth marketing and relies on customers to deliver marketing messages to other potential customers. This is not an easy feat as not every company can turn their customer into an evangelist of their brand.

So what is the reason for Burger King’s latest campaign being categorized as part of Evangelism Marketing? In their campaign itself, Burger King acted as the brand evangelist for McDonald’s by encouraging others to buy from them. It’s almost as though they were positioning themselves as a customer and promoting McDonald’s products for them.

There are at least five traits for a customer to be considered a brand evangelist:

Regularly buys their products and believes in the brand
Recommends the brand to family, friends, and coworkers regularly
Gives the products as a gift for others
Offers praise and other feedback without being asked
Participates in the brand, making the customer feel like they are part of something larger than themselves

Burger King Hidden Messages behind Viral Marketing

The shoutout campaign by Burger King indeed went viral after they posted it. Millions of social media users read the message and Burger King’s loyal customers reposted the content. This way, Burger King also manages to gain brand exposure and brand engagement even as they are giving the spotlight to McDonald’s.

But behind the campaign, Burger King placed a hidden message which actually still promotes their product. The last statement of the poster reads, “Getting a Whopper is always best, but ordering a Big Mac is not such a bad thing”. The underlying message seems to hint to us that Whopper is the best choice for a burger, whilst Big Mac is second to it. Such a subliminal message cleverly markets Burger King’s burgers while seeming to promote McDonald’s products on the surface.

Burger King has done such a big campaign with this current condition. Getting a shoutout from a big brand is not an easy thing — moreover, getting a shoutout from a rival is miraculous to say the least. Our faith in humanity is definitely restored by Burger King through this supportive campaign in trying times.

McDonalds’s decision not to brand their recent ads was a bold move, but an effective one. Their minimalistic campaign certainly turned heads and showcased their strong brand power.

With just a picture of McDonalds’s products itself and nothing else, TWBA/Paris took to the streets and placed these billboards in various neighbourhoods. Even with part of the billboard chomped away, McDonalds’s burgers and fries are so iconic that they are easily distinguishable, without any other words or logo accompanying it.

And this is no easy feat either. These life-sized billboards were custom-made to appear bitten using a traditional boiler work technique before they were installed in the streets.

It isn’t just any brand that would be able to pull off the same thing – but with McDonald’s heavy brand recognition amongst consumers, these ads would certainly communicate just what it was meant to.

Indeed, the closeup shots of the food only serve to present it in an ever more tempting manner. It’s no wonder these billboards have been “bitten off”! At least, that’s what the displays seem to be trying to convey to us – that McDonalds’s products are so irresistible that anyone walking past the billboards on the streets would be tempted to take a bite, momentarily forgetting that they aren’t real!

With such an unconventional ad design, the billboards certainly turn heads due to its deviation from the normal rectangle shape. The lack of a logo or supporting text further powers the message through to consumers.

TWBA/Paris has been working with McDonald’s on their marketing campaigns over the years. Though headquartered in New York, they have a global presence, including Paris, France, where these billboards were installed. These ads were meant to be a continuation of McDonald’s No Logo campaign concept, where they intentionally avoid using their brand on their ads – to showcase just how recognisable McDonald’s truly is.

McDonald’s statement ads have been so tremendous thus far, we can’t wait to see what they are going to come up with for their next step of the No Logo campaign.

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