Case Study: Burger King Drives Sales with Facebook Promotion

Social media offers brands new ways to connect with consumers. But, marketers are still struggling to find the formula that works best. What are the optimal tactics for engagement? How can you reliably track financial ROI from a social media campaign?

Here’s a fascinating case study that offers some intriguing clues.

Burger King’s groundbreaking “Whopper Sacrifice” campaign used Facebook as a way to build a better relationship with customers –and drive sales. But, it wasn’t just a simple coupon campaign. Instead, Burger King tied the coupon to an incentive that would, in a small way, improve customers’ lives. Burger King offered customers a coupon for a free Whopper –provided that they first cleaned up unwanted friends from their Facebook account.

Burger King helped motivate people to improve their Facebook account, and customers got a deal on a Whopper. Then, once customers printed out the coupon and used it at a restaurant, Burger King had a way to analyze the profits generated by the campaign. They used the coupons to track ROI.

By all measures, the campaign was a huge success for Facebook users and for Burger King . . .

. . . But, not for Facebook.

As explained in this Vimeo video (below), Facebook’s value is not necessarily based on this kind of qualitative experience. Facebook’s value depends more on a quantitative experience. (Ultimately, the number of friends is directly related to Facebook’s profits.) Reportedly, Facebook asked Burger King to tweak one of the main features of the campaign. But, rather than comply, Burger King cited “philosophical differences” with Facebook and shut down Whopper Sacrifice completely.

(This case study certainly illustrates the risks companies take when launching campaigns on third party social media sites. It’s not discussed much, but that’s a concern to weigh carefully when planning strategies.)

Watch more details about the campaign and the lessons learned in this informative Vimeo video featuring Jeff Molander:

Successful example of social media in Restaurant & Hospitality from Marketing keynote speaker on Vimeo.