12th
The Burger Giveth and the Burger Taketh Away
Getting people to engage with a brand in a fresh and exciting way has helped make this the year of the free burger.
Back in January, Burger King created a Facebook App called The Whopper Sacrifice. The app rewarded consumers with a free Whopper if they “sacrificed” ten of their friends, testing the love of friendship versus the love of the flame-broiled burger. It was quite a success; so much in fact that Facebook decided to eliminate it after about 230,000 people were deleted.
Recently jumping on the free burger bandwagon, another opt-in branding experience was created by TGI Fridays. The restaurant chain asked people to become a fan of Woody, a 31 year-old Friday’s-loving PR character. Those who become a fan would only receive a free burger if TGI Friday’s hit their goal of 500,000 fans by September 15. With the help of TV ads, Facebook, and word of mouth, they were able to meet this goal without any problem at all.
Due to the success of the campaign, and to reward the thousands who came after the original end date, another round shooting for 1,000,000 fans by October 1st was created. Coming in just shy of the million mark, TGI Friday’s decided to give out free burgers to everyone who joined anyway.
Smart campaigns like these not only engage the consumer, but also entertain and reward them. These types of ideas that use social media to its fullest potential are the ones that will prove to be successful in the future.
So remember, it’s not about how many friends you add or delete; it’s about how many free burgers you can get along the way.
