Burger King has been in Colombia for almost 40 years, despite this it has not managed to position itself and only recently began to gain brand value and recognition in the Colombian audience. The brand is not well-positioned within the category, ranking below large chains such as Mc Donald, KFC, and some local businesses, so the challenge has always been to gain recognition and preference within the category.

In addition to this, the pandemic hit BK dramatically, reducing its sales by up to 80%, making it reevaluate its business model and take away sales at strategic points, including the airport, one of the restaurants that sustained sales and generated higher purchase receipts.

The main objective was awareness, reactivate sales, and reactivate a vital restaurant for the brand, so one of the brand's tasks is always to look for an opportunity to achieve it.

“All Colombians know that there is no more expensive place to eat than El Dorado Airport”

“During the pandemic and the post-pandemic, every person was in saving mode”

During the post-pandemic economic reactivation, the unemployment rate was at high levels, many people were affected by cut wages and regardless of the economic position, everybody was in savings mode.

This sensitivity and emotions caused by this situation unleashed a controversy never before seen in Colombia about the cost of food at the airport. Burger King knew how to seize the moment with a real-time strategy, developing a promotion that turned the entire conversation around the brand, generating a media presence that we could never have afforded.

Our strategy

Burger King has focused its sales on men and women between 25 and 45 years old, mainly from the middle class who represent the highest percentage of the economically active population in Colombia, with a focus on major cities, especially Bogotá, where most of their restaurants are located.

With this campaign, the idea was to expand the target, reach other socio-economic levels (upper and upper-middle class), generate noise capable of activating the airport restaurant, and also gain brand recognition in secondary cities where there were not much advertising efforts.

To be relevant, we wanted to use humor as a resource through a fun post that generated an immediate reaction, thousands of people began to share the publication, then influencers joined, well-known Colombian journalists, including Daniel Samper and Gustavo Gómez, two highly respected and followed journalists in the country.

After that rapid impulse, the wave became immense and unstoppable, the most respected media in the country such as El Tiempo, and El Colombiano created articles about our promotion and suddenly the protest flag became the pillar of our fun content.

For the first time in 40 years, we were a trending topic in the main National media, we had free influencers, Twitter Trending Topic, and 500 million pesos in PR, WITHOUT INVESTING ANY BUDGET.

In that period of time, airport Whopper was the most popular hamburger in Colombia increasing sales by 900% this period of time. WITHOUT INVESTING A SINGLE PESO.