Burger King’s mascot, the King, has never been a man of many words. Zero actually. But all that changed when we realized 2 things. 1) That April 15th was the 199th annual celebration of National American Sign Language Day. And 2) that despite being America’s favorite hamburger for more than 50 years, there was no official sign in American Sign Language (ASL) for the Whopper.

In ASL, proper nouns don’t usually have a specific sign, they have to be finger spelled, letter by letter, and unlike any other language, there’s not a regulatory linguistic entity that creates new signs, they come from the people themselves and then spread.

So the King broke his long-lasting silence, but he did so in ASL, to celebrate the Deaf community and invite them to create an easier/official way to order the Whopper in their language, the #WhopperSign

The week leading up to National ASL Day we put the King (untranslated) speaking ASL in a translation box on an already running BK TV spot, but instead of translating the spot he was secretly asking the ASL community for submissions via #WhopperSign.

Then we sent the King to a Burger King in Washington DC adjacent to the largest Deaf University in the US, and transformed the restaurant by changing every word to ASL.

There, the King surprised the Deaf community by talking with them in ASL, asking for new signs. We released an online film of the event to promote the campaign online.

During ASL day, the King had live video conversations on social media channels with everyone who sent in suggestions using #WhopperSign

The King, together with the Deaf community, co-created an official sign, making Burger King the first brand with a sign in ASL.

Results for April 15, 2016, National American Sign Language Day:

+3 Million views. That’s 3 times the deaf population in the US.

The campaign had a 98% positive sentiment

+120.000 Shares on social media.

+200 Million Media Impressions.

Burger King granted a Scholarship for Deaf Students at Gallaudet.

Over 200 Whopper Sign suggestions.

First ASL sign co-created with a brand.

The Whopper sign is going into Burger King’s employee training manuals so that

anyone will be able to order a Whopper using it.

We took advantage of Burger King’s traditional and online media, such as their current TV spots, print campaigns, social media profiles and even a restaurant, and repurposed them to create a campaign targeted only at the Deaf community. The best example is the translation box we added to the brand’s TV spots, using this space as a new media to NOT TRANSLATE what the spot was saying, but instead to send a secret message to only those who speak ASL. Every brand touch point was translated into ASL, in a special effort to engage with the Deaf community.

In a society where the Deaf are commonly misunderstood or overlooked completely, having the support from others (including corporations) is more than necessary. Only 7% of the U.S. population speak American Sign Language (ASL). Our target: the Deaf community and those who speak ASL, a community spread out all over the country, numbering anywhere from 500,000 to two million people which is less that 1% of the population. Our approach: use The King’s power of generating awareness and his ability to engage with people in the real world to celebrate the differences that make us all perfectly imperfect. Our strategy: connect with the Deaf community by using ASL, a language most don’t understand, all while promoting our flagship Whopper that most know and love. Burger King is all about authenticity and believes everyone should be their way, even if you’re misunderstood and people have a hard time speaking your language.

In 2011, Burger King retired The “Creepy” King mascot in favor of a new ad campaign that took the brand in a different direction. Research showed The King’s way wasn’t working anymore and he wasn’t communicating Burger King’s strengths like he once did. Gone were the days where The King would sneak up on unsuspecting guests in their homes. But in 2015, after being absent from any marketing efforts for four years, the brand wanted to bring him back to help generate greater ad awareness. This time around, however, The King would no longer be intentionally creepy. The King’s new role: embody the new brand positioning - “Be Your Way.”

Objective: build brand love with meaningful and unexpected experiences that strike an emotional connection with people. The brief: Put The King in the real world and get people talking about things that are important to Burger King’s brand and values.