Millennials and Gen Z are Burger King's most strategic audience: they generate +50% of our traffic. They also make up 80% of gamers globally, an industry growing rapidly that gave us both global reach, and relevance.

This activation was born to strengthen our connection with a key target and boost the values that define Burger King. Our ambition was to make BK the King of gaming and do it "Our Way", reconnecting with an audience that was distancing itself from the brand. All of which would ultimately have an impact in sales, although not our primary focus.

Objectives:

1. Drive brand relevance to millennials and Gen Z, an audience disconnected from the brand.

2. Reflect our authentic and courageous essence in gaming culture, differentiating Burger King from other advertisers.

3. Achieve organic reach to spread our DNA without relying on paid media.

Context

Millennials and Gen Z are Burger King's most strategic audience, generating +50% of BK's traffic. A key target, but also the most difficult to impact and conquer, and those who have the most blurred brand DNA according to Brand Trackers. Talking to these generations means gaming as they make up 80% of gamers globally. An industry growing rapidly, already larger than music, movies and streaming content combined could give us both: global reach and relevance.

Challenge

We had to enter gaming, but we weren’t alone. Our competitors were investing large budgets in special activations and sponsorships. KFC, Wendy's, McDonald’s, TacoBell… food companies were the segment with the highest investment Also, other brands with which we don’t compete in business, but in affinity and attention were entering gaming.

There are many ways to have a presence in the gaming universe but not all of them are valid for BK.

Solution

If there is one rule we always follow at Burger King, it’s to break them. This activation wasn’t going to be different, it needed to breathe our DNA and that "underdog" character that characterizes us. We had to challenge the gaming world.

We entered gaming, but we did it “Our Way”. Instead of outspending we outsmarted our way in: a soccer team would be our gateway to gaming. The collaboration had to be a win-win for both parties. We needed a "partner in crime" for this actication.

We found Stevenage F.C., a team that was at the bottom of the table in the fourth division of English League that share our values and underdog spirit, and we told them our plans to conquer gaming. They were in right away. Many thought it was a terrible investment, but we knew that if our logo was on its kit, it would appear in the next FIFA game.

Our plan? Turning Stevenage into a team with which users would want to interact organically.

We had sponsored a team in the fourth division of the English League, who would play with that team? Probably no one. What could we give in return? products. We turned the videogame launch into a promotion.

Once the videogame was released with the new Stevenage F.C. kit, with our logo available, we launched the #StevenageChallenge in 9 markets.

Execution

#StevenageChallenge invited gamers to play with our team, sign the best players and score goals to get free food through our App. To win, they had to share the video on Twitter.

Two weeks after the launch of the game, we launched a video announcing the activation on social media. During the activation we shared each challenge, inviting our followers to participate, giving visibility to the participants. To dynamize even more, we partnered with relevant gamers in each market.

Users flooded social media with content featuring players that we could never have afforded to pay to wear the Burger King kit organically. The more they played, the more visibility the brand got, and the more content circulated through social media.