On December 4, 2021, McDonald's celebrated its 50th anniversary in Germany. For Burger King, we were briefed to come up with an original idea for a disruptive and unconventional congratulation that hacks the occasion. The objective: On our competitor’s birthday, everyone should be talking about Burger King instead.

We created three motifs using medieval illustrations of kings and their clowns to convey a cheeky message: Every king needs a clown. Happy 50th birthday, McDonald's Germany. They were tactically placed around the German McDonald's headquarters and the first German restaurant on 15 stationary OOHs and one mobile OOH. Using this tactical placement to play on Burger King’s friendly rivalry with McDonald’s grabbed the attention of the German target audience. Translating the idea into social posts on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn helped to turn a local OOH into a PR idea that earned attention from target audiences across the globe.

The brand relationship between Burger King and McDonald’s is traditionally defined by a friendly rivalry and mutual banter. Playing on this rivalry through cultural hacking defined our PR strategy and led to our key message: Every king needs a clown. Happy 50th birthday, McDonald’s Germany. Target audiences included McDonald’s employees, Burger King fans in Munich and across the globe as well as the overall social community. Assets were specifically created for tactical placement on a current occasion and globally distributed via social media.

Our implementation was determined by a tactical OOH placement that was then documented and further developed for translation into social executions. We placed a mobile OOH in front of the McDonald’s Germany headquarters and first German restaurant as well as 15 stationary OOHs in direct vicinity to these locations that were then accompanied by social documentation and executions on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn. Executions were shown for a ten-day period (Dec. 3 to Dec. 13, 2021) surrounding the 50th birthday of McDonald’s Germany and took place on a small scale of organic social posts on our owned brand channels.

The “King & Clowns” campaign made headlines and got covered in 15 countries across the globe with consistent praise of the creative work and generating a media value of 1.4 million euros against a budget of only 3000 euros. Target audience outcomes included more than 2 billion global impressions and a reach of 94.5 million as well as a 400% increase in engagement against average and more than 230% increase in social interactions and response during the campaign period. Target group reactions were positive across the board, demonstrating a clear uplift in brand image, often signaling brand loyalty for Burger King over McDonald's, highlighting better communication versus our competitor, and specifically praising Burger King's superior product range. As sales weren’t an objective, no metrics were collected in this area.