Food & drink Stunt & PRApp + geofencing2018

Burger King made McDonald's the only place to unlock a 1-cent Whopper

The rival's restaurants became where the deal happened.

2018Format: The rival-location unlock

Burger King

Whopper Detour

hook › share trigger › payoff
App + geofencing
Household name

1.5Mapp downloads ^[1]

1¢Whopper ^[1]

600 ftgeofence around each McDonald's ^[1]

In a nutshell

From 4 to 12 December 2018, Burger King's app unlocked a 1-cent Whopper, but only if you were within 600 feet of a McDonald's. You then collected it at a Burger King. The app hit #1 on the App Store and the campaign won Cannes' Titanium Grand Prix.

Our take: The discount got people to download the app. The McDonald's twist got the press coverage. Having both in one mechanic is what made it work.

One of 1041 viral marketing examples in our library, broken down by format, tactic and results.

What Burger King did

Burger King had redesigned its app with order-ahead, and needed people to download it. A discount alone wouldn't get anyone talking.

FCB New York built the stunt: go to a McDonald's, open the BK app, and a 1-cent Whopper unlocks. Order it, and the app routes you to the nearest Burger King to pick it up.

It ran for nine days. Burger King's parent company later told analysts it drove 1.5 million app downloads and put the app at #1 on Apple's App Store for several days.

The format: The rival-location unlock

The clever detailYou had to physically go to McDonald's to get the Burger King deal. That's the part people repeated, and it made the rival's own restaurants part of the stunt.

Open
The dareThe pitch in one line: go to McDonald's to get a Whopper.
Step 1
DownloadThe offer lives only in the BK app.
Step 2
Go to the rivalWithin 600 feet of a McDonald's, the 1-cent Whopper unlocks.
Step 3
The detourThe app routes you to the nearest Burger King to collect it.

Why it spread

The stunt was the offer

People can explain it in one sentence. That's what made it easy to talk about and hard to ignore.

Trolling a rival makes news

A brand openly using its biggest competitor's stores is a story in itself, so the media covered it for free.

A clear action with a real reward

One cent is basically free. The reward was big enough to be worth the trip and the download.

Results

1.5 million app downloads, per Restaurant Brands International's CEO on an earnings call ^[1]
#1 on Apple's App Store for several consecutive days ^[1]
Titanium Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2019, from FCB New York ^[2]

How to copy it

Pick the action you actually need (an app install, a sign-up, a visit) and put the offer behind it.
Find a place, object or moment that belongs to a bigger rival and make it the unlock.
Make the reward almost free, so the trip is worth it.
Ask for location access only while the offer is being used, and say so clearly.
Write the whole mechanic in one sentence. If it needs a second one, simplify it.

Template: The rival-location unlock

Offer: [ABSURD PRICE / FREEBIE] on [HERO PRODUCT]
Unlock: only when you're [AT / NEAR / HOLDING] [RIVAL'S PLACE OR THING]
Redeem: [HOW THEY COLLECT IT FROM YOU]
Window: [DATES, SHORT]
One-line pitch: "Go to [RIVAL] to get [YOUR PRODUCT] for [PRICE]."

When it won’t work

You're the bigger brand. Trolling a smaller rival looks like bullying.
You collect more location data than the offer needs. In 2022, Canadian privacy regulators found that Tim Hortons' app, from the same parent company as Burger King, had over-collected location data.
Comparative advertising rules in your market don't allow naming or targeting a rival this directly. Check before you launch.

[3]

Takeaways

Put the offer behind the action you actually need.
Build the reason for press coverage into the mechanic itself.
Keep the rules to one sentence.

FAQ

What was the Whopper Detour?

A December 2018 Burger King promotion where the BK app unlocked a 1-cent Whopper only when users were within 600 feet of a McDonald's.

How successful was the Whopper Detour?

Burger King's parent company said it drove 1.5 million app downloads and made the app #1 on the App Store. It won the Titanium Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2019.

Who created the Whopper Detour?

The agency FCB New York.