PR > PR Techniques
DAVID , Sao Paulo / BURGER KING / 2021
Overview
Credits
Why is this work relevant for PR?
Around the middle of 2020, people on the internet were quite impatient for the year to end.
So, Burger King thought “why not celebrating Christmas in July to wrap up earlier the worst year ever?”.
The brand found out that the best way of telling this story of discontent was by fully decorating its stores as if it really was Christmas Time, transforming a brand-owned touchpoint into a statement against the unwished year.
By doing it, BK made its customers want to share the Holiday Spirit on social media and brought some optimistic fun to the moment.
Background
Back in the middle of 2020, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone on the internet was quite impatient for the year to end.
So, Burger King felt it should do something about these bad feelings about 2020, at least try to turn them into some optimistic fun and, of course, some PR.
Describe the creative idea
In an attempt to wrap up 2020, Burger King decided to celebrate Christmas earlier. Like a statement against the unwished year.
Describe the PR strategy
Burger King found that the best way to share the Holiday Spirit with its customers during July would be by fully decorating it stores as if it really was Christmas Time.
By doing this, Burger King surprised some unsuspecting passers-by and created a PR stunt to complain about the year together with its guests.
Describe the PR execution
Close to the week of July 25th, Burger King fully decorated its store in Miami Lakes as if it was Christmas. Then the store was featured in a film in which some guests react to it.
Later on, other BK stores from different cities around the world joined the cause and set their Christmas decoration too, like in São Paulo, Mexico City, Beijing and Bangkok.
Surprisingly, the City Council in Miami asked Burger King to keep the decoration for the whole year, and of course BK listened to the call.
List the results
It is easy to say it was Burger King’s most talked about Christmas campaign EVER. Being even more successful than the other official Christmas campaigns ran in December by the brand.
It became one of the few good news of the year, getting to the headlines of many media vehicles such as The New York Times and CNN and reaching over 530 Million people globally.
It also inspired people to share the Holiday Spirit on social media. It didn’t take much for Christmas to be Trending Topic in July, with zero media investment on Twitter.
Unfortunately, this summer campaign failed to wrap up 2020, but it was a very merry Christmas in July after all.
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