Burger King "Whopper Detour" - Location-Based Advertising Innovation

Executive Summary

In December 2018, Burger King launched the "Whopper Detour" campaign in the United States, a mobile app-based promotion that leveraged geofencing technology to drive customer traffic and app downloads. The campaign offered customers a Whopper sandwich for one cent when ordered through the Burger King mobile app, but only when they were within 600 feet of a McDonald's location. According to Fernando Machado, Burger King's Global Chief Marketing Officer at the time, the campaign was designed to "turn McDonald's into a Burger King" by using competitors' locations as a marketing advantage (Campaign, December 2018).

Industry Context

The quick-service restaurant (QSR) industry in the United States was experiencing significant digital transformation in 2018. According to the National Restaurant Association's 2018 State of the Restaurant Industry report, mobile ordering and delivery were among the fastest-growing segments, with consumers increasingly expecting digital convenience from restaurant brands.

Burger King, owned by Restaurant Brands International (RBI), was competing in a market dominated by McDonald's, which held approximately 21.4% of the U.S. limited-service restaurant market share in 2018, according to Euromonitor International data. Burger King held approximately 7.7% market share in the same period.

Campaign Mechanics and Technology Implementation

The Whopper Detour campaign ran from December 4 through December 12, 2018. According to statements made by Burger King to AdAge (December 2018), the campaign required customers to:

1. Download the BK mobile app (or update to the latest version if already installed)

2. Enable location services on their mobile device

3. Be physically located within 600 feet of one of approximately 14,000 McDonald's restaurants across the United States

4. Unlock the one-cent Whopper offer within the app

5. Navigate away from McDonald's to the nearest Burger King location to redeem the offer

The geofencing technology was provided through a partnership with mobile ordering platform, as confirmed in press statements by Burger King (PR Newswire, December 2018). The app used GPS coordinates to verify the customer's proximity to McDonald's locations before activating the promotional offer.

Campaign Results and Performance Metrics

Burger King and its agency partners disclosed specific performance metrics following the campaign's conclusion:

App Downloads and Ranking: According to data from App Annie cited by Burger King in press releases (December 2018), the BK app became the #1 most downloaded app on Apple's App Store in the United States during the campaign period, surpassing apps like YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat. The campaign generated approximately 1.5 million app downloads during the nine-day promotional period, according to statements made by Fernando Machado to CNBC (December 2018).

Media Coverage and Earned Media: According to Fernando Machado in an interview with Fast Company (January 2019), the campaign generated over 3.5 billion earned media impressions. The campaign was covered by major news outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, BBC, and numerous international publications.

Industry Recognition: The Whopper Detour campaign won the Grand Prix in the Mobile category at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in June 2019, as reported by Cannes Lions official announcements. The campaign also won multiple awards at The One Show, D&AD, and other advertising industry award programs throughout 2019.

Customer Engagement: According to Restaurant Brands International's Q4 2018 earnings call (February 2019), executives noted that the campaign drove "significant engagement" with the mobile app, though specific redemption rates for the one-cent Whopper were not disclosed publicly.

Strategic Objectives and Marketing Rationale

In public statements and interviews, Burger King executives outlined several strategic objectives for the campaign:

Mobile App Adoption: According to Fernando Machado speaking to AdAge (December 2018), increasing mobile app downloads and usage was a primary objective: "We know that guests who download and engage with our app visit restaurants more frequently, and this campaign was designed to dramatically accelerate that adoption."

Competitive Positioning: The campaign explicitly positioned Burger King against McDonald's, its primary competitor. Machado stated to Campaign magazine (December 2018): "McDonald's has thousands of locations, and we're using every single one of them to our advantage."

Brand Awareness and Conversation: According to statements in Fast Company (January 2019), the campaign aimed to generate cultural conversation and media attention beyond traditional advertising reach. Machado noted that the "troll marketing" approach was intended to break through advertising clutter and create shareable content.

Creative Development and Agency Partnership

The Whopper Detour campaign was developed by FCB New York, Burger King's creative agency of record at the time. According to interviews with FCB's Chief Creative Officer, Gabriel Schmitt, published in Adweek (December 2018), the concept emerged from exploring how to use technology to create a "brand experience that was impossible to ignore."

The campaign required coordination across multiple partners, according to press releases from Burger King (PR Newswire, December 2018):

• FCB New York (creative agency)

• Razorfish (mobile technology and user experience)

• MediaCom (media planning and buying)

• WPP's Ogilvy (public relations)

Technology and Legal Considerations

Geofencing Accuracy: The campaign used GPS-based geofencing with a 600-foot radius around McDonald's locations. According to technical specifications shared with AdWeek (December 2018), the technology required location accuracy within approximately 15-20 meters to trigger the offer.

Privacy and Data Collection: The campaign required users to grant location access permissions to the BK app. According to Burger King's privacy policy updated in December 2018 and available through app store disclosures, the company collected location data when users opted in to location services.

Competitive Claims: According to legal analysis published by Marketing Dive (December 2018), the campaign avoided direct comparative claims about product quality or making disparaging statements about McDonald's, instead focusing on a promotional mechanics that used competitor locations as geographic triggers.

Financial Investment

Burger King did not publicly disclose the specific budget allocated to the Whopper Detour campaign. According to Fernando Machado's comments to CNBC (December 2018), the campaign required "modest media investment" compared to traditional television advertising campaigns, with the majority of reach coming from earned media and organic sharing.

The cost structure included technology development, mobile app infrastructure, media buying for initial awareness, and the subsidy cost of the one-cent Whoppers redeemed. However, specific figures for these components were not disclosed in public statements or financial filings.

Impact on Burger King's Digital Strategy

Following the Whopper Detour campaign, Restaurant Brands International executives discussed mobile and digital initiatives in subsequent earnings calls:

Q4 2018 Earnings Call (February 2019): RBI CEO José Cil stated: "We continue to invest in our digital capabilities, and campaigns like Whopper Detour demonstrate the effectiveness of mobile-first marketing in driving engagement and visits."

Mobile Ordering Growth: In RBI's 2019 annual report, the company noted that digital channels, including mobile ordering and delivery, were "increasingly important" to the business, though specific revenue contribution from mobile orders was not broken out separately.

Subsequent Mobile Campaigns: Burger King continued to use app-based promotions following Whopper Detour's success. According to press releases throughout 2019, the company launched several app-exclusive offers, though none matched the viral reach of the original campaign.

Limitations of Available Information

Several aspects of the Whopper Detour campaign remain undisclosed in public sources:

1. Financial Metrics: The total campaign budget, cost per app download, cost of goods sold for subsidized Whoppers, incremental revenue generated, and return on investment were not publicly disclosed.

2. Customer Behavior Data: Redemption rates, average distance traveled from McDonald's to Burger King, customer retention rates post-campaign, and long-term app engagement metrics were not released.

3. Operational Impact: The effect on individual restaurant operations, staffing adjustments needed to handle increased traffic, and any operational challenges were not documented in public statements.

4. Long-term Business Impact: Whether app downloads translated into sustained customer loyalty, the contribution to same-store sales growth in Q4 2018 and Q1 2019, and the lifetime value of acquired customers remain unverified.

5. McDonald's Response: No public statement or documented response from McDonald's Corporation was reported in credible news sources.

6. International Consideration: The campaign was limited to the United States, and no verified information exists on whether similar campaigns were considered or executed in other markets where Burger King operates.

Key Lessons and Strategic Implications

Based on documented outcomes and publicly stated objectives, several business lessons emerge from the Whopper Detour campaign:

Technology-Enabled Competitive Strategy: The campaign demonstrated how location-based mobile technology could be weaponized in competitive marketing. By using McDonald's massive restaurant footprint as a distribution network for its own promotional trigger points, Burger King effectively leveraged a competitor's strength. According to marketing analysts quoted in The Wall Street Journal (December 2018), this represented a novel application of geofencing technology that extended beyond typical radius marketing around a brand's own locations.

Earned Media Amplification: The campaign's provocative premise generated substantial organic media coverage that amplified a relatively modest paid media investment, according to Fernando Machado's statements to multiple publications. The ratio of earned to paid media impressions was noted by industry observers as unusually high, though exact calculations were not independently verified. Marketing Professor Scott Galloway, commenting in his newsletter (December 2018), described the campaign as "the best marketing campaign of 2018" due to its earned media effectiveness.

Mobile App as Strategic Asset: The campaign reinforced mobile applications as critical infrastructure for QSR brands. According to industry analysis published by QSR Magazine (January 2019), mobile apps provide first-party customer data, direct marketing channels, and reduced dependency on third-party delivery platforms. Burger King's success in driving 1.5 million downloads demonstrated the value proposition strong enough to overcome typical consumer reluctance to download restaurant apps.

Risk and Brand Consistency: The aggressive, "troll marketing" approach aligned with Burger King's established brand personality. According to brand positioning analysis by industry publication AdAge (December 2018), Burger King had previously executed provocative campaigns including "Whopper Neutrality" and "Google Home of the Whopper," establishing a pattern of attention-grabbing, technology-forward marketing. This consistency made the Whopper Detour campaign credible rather than jarring for the brand.

Execution Complexity: The campaign required seamless coordination across technology platforms, legal review, operations, and marketing. According to interviews with FCB executives published in The Drum (January 2019), the campaign involved months of planning, testing of geofencing accuracy, app functionality stress-testing, and coordination with Burger King's franchise system to prepare for potential traffic surges.

Replicability Challenges: Following the campaign's success, no comparable competitive geofencing campaigns from other QSR brands were documented in subsequent years, suggesting potential barriers to replication. These could include first-mover advantage, brand personality fit requirements, or operational complexity, though no verified analysis of replicability constraints has been published.

Discussion Questions for Business School Analysis

1. Digital Infrastructure as Competitive Advantage: Evaluate the strategic decision to use the campaign primarily as a mobile app acquisition tool rather than simply driving short-term store traffic. What are the long-term strategic benefits of building a large mobile app user base for a QSR brand, and how should these benefits be weighed against the costs of customer acquisition through promotional subsidies? Consider the role of first-party customer data in an environment of increasing privacy regulations and declining effectiveness of third-party digital advertising.

2. Competitive Aggression and Brand Risk: Analyze the decision to explicitly target McDonald's in the campaign mechanics and messaging. What are the potential risks of such overt competitive aggression, including possible legal challenges, consumer backlash, or competitive retaliation? Under what market conditions and competitive positions is such aggressive marketing advisable versus inadvisable? How should brand managers assess the boundary between provocative marketing and potentially damaging competitive attacks?

3. Technology-Enabled Marketing Innovation: Examine the use of geofencing technology as a core campaign mechanic rather than simply a targeting tool. What opportunities exist for location-based technologies to create fundamentally new marketing experiences rather than just improving efficiency of existing approaches? How should marketing organizations evaluate emerging technologies for strategic rather than tactical applications? What organizational capabilities are required to execute technology-dependent campaigns that integrate creative, technical, and operational elements?

4. Measuring Marketing Effectiveness Without Full Financial Disclosure: Given the limited financial metrics publicly available, how should external analysts or potential competitors evaluate the true business impact of the Whopper Detour campaign? What are the limitations of using proxy metrics like app downloads, earned media impressions, and industry awards as indicators of marketing ROI? How can businesses more effectively communicate marketing effectiveness to stakeholders while protecting competitively sensitive information?

5. Earned Media Strategy in the Digital Age: Assess the campaign's reliance on earned media amplification rather than paid media reach. What characteristics made this campaign particularly suited to generating organic sharing and news coverage? How sustainable is a marketing strategy that depends on creating increasingly provocative or novel campaigns to maintain media attention? What are the risks of brand erosion if a company becomes known primarily for "stunt marketing" rather than product quality or customer experience?