For quick-service restaurants, every summer brings a heated “Burger War” as national chains launch new products in the battle for sales and mindshare. Wendy’s 2013 entry was the Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger, and test markets had revealed something remarkable: consumers didn’t merely like the flavorful mash-up, they loved it, spreading fawning praise across their social media channels. (It’s like everything glorious in one sandwich! #bestideaever)

While fast-food launches are primarily covered by trade media, we saw an opportunity for Wendy’s to make real news. Building on the test market phenomenon, the creative team turned it into a major love-fest, taking real consumer Tweets and Facebook posts and turning them into hilarious “Pretzel Love Songs” crooned by professional singers.

The agency secured former boy band superstar Nick Lachey to take the whole thing over the top. We turned Manhattan’s 34th Street Wendy’s into a private nightclub where Nick debuted his own Pretzel Love Song to the entertainment media elite and told his live streaming audience to submit their own Tweets and Facebook posts.

It launched a summer long blitz that had the national news and entertainment media eating out of our hand – literally – as we delivered hot Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburgers to prominent on-air personalities. The Pretzel Love Song campaign became so successful that Wendy’s incorporated it into their national television advertising.

We made consumers feel invested in the campaign they inspired, designed traditional and social media to work in harmony, and in the process helped Wendy’s Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger become the most successful product launch in the company’s history.

Nothing less than unprecedented success

PR’s ultimate goal was to fire up national awareness and promote trial of the Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger, timed to the launch of Wendy’s paid media advertising. While fast-food product launches are routinely covered in the trade press, our campaign set out to earn high profile exposure in coveted entertainment and news media outlets, virtually unprecedented for the Wendy’s brand.

A coordinated effort between traditional and social media needed to earn a billion impressions and drive millions of online actions. For Wendy’s, the ultimate measure of success would be a 3% increase in same store sales.

What’s more, of the 10 highest sales peaks in Wendy’s history, five were during PBC programming

By campaign’s end, Wendy’s Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger had become the most successful product launch in the company’s history and Wendy’s stock had soared 31%.

A campaign in perfect harmony

Wendy’s announced a 3.2% increase in same store sales (SSS) in Q3 of 2013, and a 3.1% increase in SSS in Q4, surpassing business goals. PR generated 2+ billion media impressions from more than 2,600 placements and we far surpassed our social media goals, creating 267,038,498 digital impressions and 8.2MM actions (video views, likes, comments, shares).

PR earned Wendy’s its first big taste of national entertainment and news media coverage, including broadcast taste test segments on CNN New Day and TODAY with Kathie Lee and Hoda, exclusive print stories with USA Today and Ad Age and high profile stories on Good Morning America Live E! News, Entertainment Weekly, New York Daily News, Fast Company, Yahoo! OMG, Bloomberg Businessweek, Yahoo! Shine, and Buzzfeed. In the trades, Nation’s Restaurant News voted “Pretzel Love Songs” among the “Top 5 Restaurant Marketing Campaigns of 2013.”

The campaign was so successful that Pretzel Love Songs were incorporated into Wendy’s brand advertising. And that was music to our ears.

Give the media a lot to love

Leveraging the social media phenomenon from test marketing, we secured a USA Today exclusive, and scored “first bites” with CNN New Day and TODAY with Kathie Lee and Hoda, timed to the national rollout.

Then we recruited former boy band and reality star Nick Lachey, and transformed Manhattan’s Wendy’s into a private concert for top-tier entertainment media, where Nick crooned his own Pretzel Love Song composed of real fan tweets (“Yo it’s like everything glorious in one sandwich, hashtag is this real life?”), and live-streamed his performance to fans online.

The media bit and we delivered. When Good Morning America anchors covered an analyst report about Wendy’s rising stock, we even sent them hot “PBCs” live on air.

We fueled the campaign all summer as Nick solicited more effusive Tweets from fans, hand-picking the best lyrics for the campaign’s grand finale Pretzel Love song he wrote and released in August.

A sizzling competition in the burger wars

In the dynamic fast-food industry, summer is the season for “burger wars,” as national QSR chains introduce new products and compete bun to bun to drive both sales and brand mindshare.

Wendy’s was launching its summer entry, the Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger after a successful performance in test markets. They needed a national campaign that would earn significant exposure in both traditional and social media, and drive massive store traffic.

Get consumers – and media – to sing our praises

For starters, we recognized that something special was happening. In the three test markets for Wendy’s Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger (Sacramento, Miami, Cleveland), consumers had voluntarily taken to social media to sing the product’s praises. The creative team decided to build on the organic phenomenon, turning those real consumer Tweets and Facebook posts (Mmmmmm! Fireworks in my mouth-hole! Well done, America! into hilarious love ballads for a hip online audience.

Then we had to turn up the volume. The PR campaign needed to work in traditional as well as online media, extend well beyond the test markets, and attract national entertainment media that rarely, if ever, covers fast food product launches. But we believed Pretzel Love Songs had the power to make news. Real news. And so we made Wendy’s Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburgers irresistible to the national media.