In March of 2015, Burger King reintroduced Chicken Fries in response to outcry in social media about the product's removal from the menu. The objective was to drive awareness among Generation-Z and Millennial audiences about the return of the beloved Chicken Fries product.
The strategy was simple – connect with the target audience in the most intimate of digital settings where they are sharing content with friends and family – mobile messaging. During the planning process it was was found that teens and young adults were very active across mobile messaging apps like iMessage, Facebook Messenger, Kik, Tango, WhatsApp, and more. It was clear that this was an untapped channel to communicate the return of Chicken Fries to Burger King.
To do so Burger King syndicated Chicken Fries content into the mobile messaging space in two different ways. The first way Burger King syndicated Chicken Fries content in mobile messaging was through a branded keyboard - which featured Chicken Fries as emojis, stickers and GIFs. Secondly, Burger King distributed its Chicken Fries content natively within messaging applications, including a branded artificial intelligence chat experience and syndication of its Chicken Fries emojis.
The campaign lead to over 3.5 million branded conversations – including both peer-to-peer sharing and brand direct conversations. There were also 925 thousand shares of the brand content made specifically for mobile messaging.
After the campaign was completed there was a brand lift study conducted. After engaging with Chicken Fries content in mobile messaging Gen-Z and Millennials were:
-55% more favourable towards Chicken Fries
-39% more likely to purchase Chicken Fries
-36% more likely to recommend Chicken Fries to a friend
The campaign was also voted one of the best emoji campaigns of the year by AdAge.
