Burger King selling hot dogs was a game-changer, so we needed an equally epic campaign. To launch it, we created a revolutionary internal training video specifically-designed to be leaked by employees weeks before the product became available. We did this by placing hip-hop star Snoop Dogg front and center in this inconspicuous hype video.

Within minutes, the video — and news of Grilled Dogs — went viral. Even the notorious politician Anthony Weiner made a public statement, and our reply made The New York Post’s gossip column “Page 6”. We kept the momentum going by purchasing tabloid cover wraps in key markets that cleverly played on The King and hot dogs.

By the time Grilled Dogs were available, there was already a worldwide frenzy, so we created a Snapchat filter allowing fans to turn their excitement into memes.

All this made Grilled Dogs one of BK’s most successful campaigns ever.

It’s 9am in thousands of Burger Kings and employees are catching up on the latest training exercises. This training video starts with the same open but then a smoke cloud takes over the screen to reveal Snoop Dogg. Surprise and delight ensues, phones slide from pockets, and spontaneous social media posts start to appear. A Spanglish version featuring Charo provokes similar reactions from bilingual employees.

By the time TMZ broke the news on their afternoon live national show, social media had blown up. The TMZ clip was embedded across the web and included in nightly newscasts and national morning shows. Universally positive press coverage focused on the new product launch and Snoop exciting employees.

Then, Burger King ran a Snapchat Filter ad with meme-style creative. Activated by influencers and users, it led to 3.5 million engagements with the Snapchat ad and 90 million views of the filter in 24 hours.

Led by TMZ’s clip “Snoop Dogg, the Hot Dog King!”, the training videos launch of BK’s Grilled Dogs exploded: more than 1.8 Billion media impressions within 24 hours (3.5 billion as of March 30). Launch awareness was at 45% of the public before the product was even released.

“Snoop Dogg can make even the most mundane tasks awesome” –TMZ

“Could not have been better promoted” –Hypebeast

“This is some next level cultural convergence” –Complex

“Burger King will soon be dropping hot dogs like they’re hot, so naturally they consulted dog and heat expert, Snoop Dogg” –Mashable.

• Social response was strong and immediate, with +40,000 tweets and 870,000 Engagements within first 24 hours.

• Snapchat ad for the national rollout lead to 3.5 million engagements and 90 million impressions

• $50 million in earned media

• 31 million social interactions

• 3.7 million influencer interactions

• 14.8 million training video views