To launch this new product offering in a way that was just as spicy as the product, we simply turned those disgruntled spicy nugget tweets directed at Wendy’s into promoted Twitter ads from Burger King. This allowed us to infiltrate the feeds of millions of users, sparking a staggering amount of buzz around Burger King’s Spicy Chicken Nuggets. The best part? Wendy’s went silent. We defeated them at their own game.

Using Twitter’s whitelisting feature, we reached out to Twitter users who had angrily tweeted at Wendy’s regarding the discontinuation of their product and asked them if we could promote their tweet. With these individuals’ permission, Burger King began promoting these tweets over the course of three days to launch Burger King’s Spicy Chicken Nuggets.

Burger King sold out of a three-month supply of spicy nuggets in four weeks.

This is the stat we’re most proud of, because our simple execution had a profound monetary impact on the business, while simultaneously creating an insatiable demand for the product even after it sold out.

Over 1.5 billion impressions.

We noticed a drastic shift in our target audience’s interaction with the brand. They became more playful in their interaction with us, less critical of our products, and more interested in us as a culture commentator.

105 percent increase in positive sentiment.

In this one digital activation, Burger King completely shifted their tone on social and the way people began perceiving them in the digital space.

87 percent social engagement

Of the over 21,000 mentions of the whitelisting campaign on Twitter, 87 percent were retweets.

The strategy was simple: Create a Twitter campaign that captures the attention of Wendy's digital audience and converts them into Burger King lovers by answering their call for Spicy Chicken Nuggets. The primary Burger King target is adults age 18–34. They are very active on social media, spending an average of 45 minutes a day scrolling through their feeds.

In 2017, Wendy’s suddenly discontinued their beloved Spicy Chicken Nuggets. This set Twitter ablaze with spicy nugget fans begging, pleading, and boisterously crying out in emoji-speak for them to reverse their decision. So Burger King seized the opportunity to shift the conversation and steal market share by creating their own Spicy Chicken Nuggets.