OP #246: Super Bowl, Whopper Detour, and More

Author

Darren Herman
February 13, 2024

Happy Tuesday to the OP Community.

🏈I hope your team won the Super Bowl. I didn’t have a team in the race so I sat back and watched (along with 123M others) with no preference. And you bet I watched the ads. Lots of early buzz around the Cetaphil advertisement (#GameTimeGlow): my sister-in-law sent it to me as she thought I’d enjoy it and was absolutely right. Here’s a list of the ads ranked by the NY Times and Ad Age. Not sure if you saw the Taylor Swift prop bet sheet, if not, check this out. How is the NFL ever going to comp the-Taylor-Swift-effect of 2024 in 2025? And some interesting data on the Super Bowl ticket market via my friend Patrick. And one last thing: the history of the SB Halftime Show.

✨My pal Jeremy, founder of Cordial, a customer engagement platform, interviewed on the Daily Bolster podcast. And my other friend, Richy, did a Q&A with Admonsters about the new IAB Diligence Platform for Privacy Compliance.

📈 The Contagious Radar Report 2024 Edition was just released. It’s a collection of thoughts from 100 senior marketing industry operators about the opportunities and challenges ahead. You might find this very interesting.

🛒I’ll be at Shoptalk on the afternoon of March 18 and all-day on the 19th. If you happen to be going, let me know and we can try to meet up.

💡This is a good article. Unfortunately it’s behind the Fortune paywall. If you haven’t looked at Fortune articles this month, then it should open for you. AI’s winners and losers have a clear precedent you’ve never thought about, Goldman strategy guru says: the canal boom of the 18th century (Fortune)

📢 I am breaking some news here: Silicon Alley Sports tickets are officially on sale. You can reserve your golf, pickleball, or schmoozer spot here. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you can learn about SAS here. If you want to get a vibe check on what to expect, here are two great videos produced by friends at The Buddy Group that set the tone for SAS events. Have you joined our SAS LinkedIn group?

Here are some good articles to get us started:

Thanks again for reading and giving me your attention. I hope OP #246 was up to or exceeded your standards. Always reach out to help me build a better letter.

-Darren

A Look Back: Cannes Lions - Burger King “Whopper Detour” Campaign

You’ll remember this campaign from 2019… but figured I’d bring it back to showcase some creativity in marketing. This was inspired by a conversation I had with my friend Dylan, who co-authored this piece for the OP with me. If you are into alt-assets and particularly, sneakers, check out his book, Sneakanomic Growth.

Marketing industry participants and observers look to the Cannes Lions Festival as a barometer for excellence in creative marketing, with Grand Prix awards honoring those campaigns that push the industry forward. Yours truly won a Cannes Lions in 2021 for Made by You (Michaels Arts & Crafts) with our partners at the time, RGA, IDEO, Camelot, and The Buddy Group.  

Many hours have been spent poring over the winners and the work that garnered plaudits. While acclaim is great - and standout creativity is evident - there’s more to learn from award-winning campaigns when their impact is measurable and apparent. Few companies have won Lions with greater consistency than Burger King, and the tangible outcomes delivered by BK’s 2019 Titanium Grand Prix-winning “Whopper Detour” rank among some of the best. 

For those who might not remember, the premise was simple: motivate customers to download the Burger King mobile app by offering them $0.01 Whoppers. On their own, giveaways often fail to leave a lasting impression or forge a sustainable relationship. But this was no ordinary giveaway or coupon. 

Through the use of geofencing, BK delivered the $0.01 Whopper offer via push notification only when a customer was standing near the premises of a McDonald’s. To claim their flame-broiled burger for a penny, they’d have to wave goodbye to the Golden Arches. Effectively, Burger King was incentivizing customers to order Whoppers at McDonald’s, flipping the competitor’s superior footprint (double the locations) from weakness to advantage.

The campaign, conceived by agency FCB New York, was a massive success. Within just 9 days, 1.5 million users downloaded the app, growing the existing user base by 37.5% and driving Burger King to the top of both the Apple App Store and Google Play. Those customers proved to be sticky, spending $15 million more annually on the app than non-Detour participants. 

The campaign achieved its primary objective: more app users. But the idea was so creative, the execution so intricate, and the social media buzz so significant that it delivered far more than app signups:

  • The Whopper Detour generated 3.3 billion impressions, equating to $37 million in earned media. 

  • Customers redeemed 500,000 Whoppers, not only tripling mobile sales but also generating the highest increase in weekly store traffic since 2015. 

  • The redemption rate on the Whopper offer was 40x the previous record for digital coupon promotion, and ROI on the campaign totaled 37:1. 

All of that, though, followed from a singular, laser focus on driving signups; these results are byproducts. This wasn’t creativity for creativity’s sake, but creativity perfectly channeled towards a specific goal. If that goal is well chosen, reaching it unlocks possibilities that extend far beyond its parameters.

DH take: Now this is solid work. Not only did it resonate with customers and was exciting, it built up the loyalty asset for BK and drove a ton of business. The “viral” element of the campaign helped provide additional excitement.  The marketing didn’t just enable activities, it created outcomes.

I've done extensive reading this week and I hope you'll enjoy the following links that I've curated. If you come across an article that you believe would be a great addition to future OP letters, don't hesitate to share it with me. However, please note that I retain the discretion to decide on the content that goes into each OP letter.

AI Aesthetics (Matt Mandel/USV)

Why China Is Betting Big on Chiplets (MIT Technology Review)

Thank you again for your time and attention today. Please do reach out any time.

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