Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the majority of offline events were canceled, including Cannes Lions 2020. Go Mobile marketing agency decided to recap the most remarkable mobile cases from last year. Let’s Go!
Last year Burger King was not the king of burgers, but also the king of creativity. 3 advertising campaigns from the fiery fast-food chain received awards.
Burger King — The Whopper Detour
Award: Grand Prix
Category: Activation by Location
There are twice as many McDonald’s as Burger King restaurants in the US. Also, McDonald’s app is way more popular.
Because Burger King had to keep up with the competitor, they needed to come up with a new approach that would convince users to download the app.
Idea
Traditionally, Burger King’s advertising campaigns are quite provocative, and they like to troll their competitors, especially McDonald’s.
Solution
This time Burger King’s creators decided to turn competitor’s quantitative advantage into their own. They used McDonald’s Restaurants as contact points.
Tools
Customers could order a Whopper for 1 cent on Burger King’s app, but only within 600 feet (approx. 183 meters) from any McDonald’s restaurant. After the order was placed, customers were able to pick it up from the nearest Burger King restaurant.
This campaign ran on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare, and Waze. Additionally, interest was supported by guerrilla OOH and printed ads in the New York Post.
Why did it work
The campaign was perfectly targeted on millennials and Gen Z. Burger King skillfully trolled its competitor by adding gamification.
Results
- 3,5 billion impressions;
- 818% increase in Twitter mentions;
- earned media — $40 million;
- 1,5 million app downloads and #1 rank on App Store and Google Play;
- app sales doubled with ROI 37:1;
- improved company growth forecast: 33% customer base growth and $15 million revenue increase;
- highest foot traffic within the last 4 years;
- tripled mobile sales during the promotional period;
- this promotional campaign was 40 times more effective in comparison to the previous ones.
Burger King — Burn that Ad
Award: Silver Lions
Category: Technology
In Brazil, burger lovers ignored or didn’t really know about Burger King’s app. And at the same time, marketing budget of the main competitor (McDonald’s) was 4 times larger than Burger King’s.
Idea
Convince fast food lovers to choose Burger King, by using competitor’s brand and modern technologies.
Solution
Burger King added AR to the app. It allowed to turn every McDonald’s ad into Burger King ad, by using the most important element of burger making — fire.
Tools
Burger King created a dynamic database that allowed the app to recognize any kind of McDonald’s ads and to set the ad on fire automatically. Such fun destruction was rewarded with a coupon for a free Whopper.
Why did it work
Three main components contributed to the success: provocative mechanics, parasitism on a well-known brand, and AR usage.
Results
- 1 million app downloads in the region;
- Best app in the “Food and drinks” category on the AppStore;
- 56,4% in-app sales increase;
- 2,8 million active users in the app;
- Burger King app became the most downloaded app in the world;
- 1 billion media impressions;
- This campaign created a very strong association — people would think about Burger King every time they saw a McDonald’s ad.
Burger King — The Traffic Jam Whopper
Award: Bronze Lion
Category: Activation by Location
Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, is notorious for its endless traffic jams that can last up to five hours.
Idea
Whopper delivery to the drivers stuck in traffic.
Solution
Brand used DOOH-ads to tell people about an opportunity to order food delivered to their car. Burgers were delivered by courier on a motorcycle.
Tools
Burger King’s ads were shown on the interactive billboards next to the busy roads. They were also displaying information about the traffic and personalized updates about orders and their delivery time.
Waze app was showing banners to the drivers who were located in the delivery zone. Also they were receiving personalized push-notifications with an offer to order a Whopper. For safety reasons, the voice control feature has been added.
Google Maps API helped to track driver’s location and speed, because delivery “addresses” were constantly changing. The nearest restaurant was automatically selected by the app and had to be not further than 3 kilometers away from the driver.
Why did it work
Burger King turned a window of a car into a drive-thru window. Burgers delivered to you while you are in a car — what could possibly be better? As a result drivers would save their time, by eating Whoppers while in traffic.
Results
- 63% orders increase;
- Daily downloads increased 44-fold;
- Main fast food app in Mexico
Carlings — adDRESS THE FUTURE
Award: Gold Lion
Category: Social Trends
Norwegian brand Carlings opened its first online store. The goal was to drive traffic and to take its own market share in a gigantic e-commerce ocean.
Idea
Social networks are forcing teenagers and young adults to participate in the global overproduction of clothing. The fashion industry is heavily criticized for its contribution to environmental pollution.
According to Barclaycard, 17% of Britons are buying clothes online only for posting photos on social media. There are approximately 280 million posts on Instagram with a hashtag #ootd (Outfit Of The Day). Usually the purchase was later returned to the store.
The advertising campaign was based on the idea of production without production.
Solution
Carlings created the first digital clothing line, which you can “wear” on social media and express yourself without harming the planet.
Tools
The company created fully digital clothing pieces. Carlings offered loads of variations for each piece so that customers can create a unique look for social media. At the same time, the production of this line didn’t have any negative impact on the environment.
Even electricity that was used to create 3D-models was clean and revenue was donated to WaterAid.
This virtual collection was available for customers for one month.
Why did it work
Carlings provided young people with an opportunity for artistic expression — endless creativity for free.
Results
- Carlings became one of the most innovative players on the market;
- The company gained attention from international media, including Hypebeast, i-D, PaperMag, Vogue, and Wired;
- 56% increase in website traffic;
- The collection was sold to customers from more than 30 countries during the test period.
KFC — Pocket Franchise
Award: Gold Lion
Category: Mobile Payment Solution
KFC used to be a synonym for fast food for Chinese youth in the past. However, food delivery services changed their habits because nowadays food is available in just one touch. The goal was to get young people back to KFC via different online tools.
Idea
A step between thought and purchase significantly decreased recently. People don’t even need to leave their house or office. KFC made this step even smaller by adding its online store to the messenger.
Solution
Social Gaming Commerce Strategy included gamification and transfer of the order window to WeChat.
KFC created a «pocket» franchise. Every user could open a store on social media and receive orders from others.
Tools
WeChat users got an opportunity to purchase KFC’s online franchise. They designed the store by themselves and received commission from every order.
Friends could choose and order food directly in the feed and later pick it up from any offline-restaurant. Also they were able to leave virtual advice that opened new promotional offers and gifts for the franchisee.
Why did it work
Social rating is very important in China. By leaving advice, users helped their friends to improve their rating, popularity rating of their stores, and sales rating. Competition between friends boosted creativity and increased engagement.
Even Celebrities opened KFC Pocket Franchises that led to additional coverage of the campaign.
Results
- KFC is still using this business model;
- 560 thousand franchises were opened within the first day;
- More than 2,5 million franchises within 120 days;
- DAU — 2 million;
- 42 million CNY within 120 days (not including additional sales during the visits).
The Big Issue — Pay It Forward
Award: Gold Lion
Category: Social Purpose
British street magazine The Big Issue is sold by homeless people like many other street media. The magazine is created by professional journalists, so content quality is not affected.
TBI’s goal is to help homeless people to earn money (not to panhandle) and to integrate them into society.
Idea
Within the last 10 years cash payments decreased twice, and it kills the magazine’s business model that is based on street sales. Homeless sellers became even more isolated from the financial system.
In the era of free content offline media are struggling, and their sales are drastically decreasing. The Big Issue decided to change its business model and to implement digital tools.
Solution
Good old QR-code that made TBI the first printed magazine that could be re-sold.
Tools
Each magazine had a QR-code connected to a particular homeless seller.
When buyers finished reading their magazine, they could resell it for no less than 2.5 pounds. Each magazine could have been resold several times, and each time a fixed amount of 1.25 pounds was sent to the homeless seller’s account and the rest went to TBI.
Each buyer became a potential seller, and each seller became an entrepreneur.
The business model was changed not only by TBI, but also by the company’s partner — digital mobile bank Monzo. It allowed homeless people to open a bank account — a key to financial inclusion.
Why did it work
Firstly, by reselling the magazine readers were returning the money spent and were receiving free information, so TBI became more similar to online media.
Secondly, social justice was well integrated into the campaign and helped to increase customers’ loyalty.
Results
The peer-to-peer distribution model made homeless sellers independent from cash operations.
- 15% sales increase;
- Including the most successful sellers, the weekly increase in sales was 69%;
- TBI received 93 million impressions.
Deutsche Bahn — No Need to Fly
Award: Silver Lion
Category: Social
72% of Germans prefer to go on holiday abroad. The goal was to make people consider going on a trip around Germany using Deutsche Bahn.
Idea
A side-by-side comparison of two very similar locations — one in Germany and one abroad.
Solution
A smart algorithm searched and selected images of German sites similar to the foreign ones.
Tools
Facebook data allowed to target users interested in traveling to a particular country.
Information about smartphone geolocation allowed to identify an airport closest to the user and determine the price of a ticket.
Thus, ads were automatically generated and showed:
- an image of a location in the country of interest and the lowest ticket price from the nearest airport;
- an image of a similar place in Germany and Deutsche Bahn train ticket price.
Campaign ran on Instagram and Facebook and was also supported by influencers and OOH. Bloggers’ materials and outdoor advertising were copying the idea of the comparison of similar locations.
Why did it work
Wow effect and obvious savings. Why pay more, if there is practically the same thing, but cheaper?
Results
- +850% CTR;
- 6,61% conversion rate;
- 24% revenue growth.
