Burger King hired advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CPB) in 2004 to help boost declining sales. CPB launched unconventional viral marketing campaigns like Subservient Chicken, where visitors could give commands to a cartoon chicken, garnering over 20 million views in 10 days. Their next campaign, CoqRoc, promoted Chicken Fries by pretending to be a metal band, though it risked alienating non-teen audiences. CPB's campaigns successfully generated buzz but faced some criticism. Overall, the viral elements boosted awareness but integrated further with TV and additional media could have more effectively reached all customer groups.

1. Burger King
Marketing Course Case Study
Presented By :
Fardin Karimi
Pouyan Forooghi
Omid Aminzadeh
Morteza Gharaei
Arya Zangiabadi

2. Events
 2003 – Performance
 No. 1: McDonald‘s
9% sales jump (to $22.1 billion)
 No2: BK
5% sales decrease (to $7.9 billion)
 No.3: Wendy
11% sales jump (to $7.4 billion)
 2004 – Grad Blum’s move
 Fired Young & Rubicam
 Awarded the advertising to Crispin

3. Perceptual Map
Wendy’s
Busy
People Location
Menu
Dieters
Sheetz
Burger King
Low-Income
Families
Subway
Sonic
McDonald’s
Arby’s
Taco Bell

4. Burger King 4P’s Analysis
 Target Market
 low income families and also busy families
 Product
 broiled burger and a wide selection of foods to choose from.
 Place
 restaurants everywhere around the globe (franchising)
 Price
 inexpensive (low and middle class families)
 Promotion
 commercials, websites, and web ads. (Crispin vs. Y&R)

5. The Advertising Agencies
Y&R versus Crispin
 Y&R
 Got $350m BK account 10 months earlier to help sales;
 Developed the “The Fire’s Ready” campaign (broil vs.
fry);
 “Flat” and “Uninspiring” message lead to seal Y&R fate.

6. The Advertising Agencies
Y&R versus Crispin
 Crispin
 Offbeat, unorthodox, and irreverent promotions
 Inexpensive ways to gain attention
 Award-winning, low-budget campaigns
 Out-of-the-box, results-oriented agency
 Some loose rules:
 zero in on the product
 kick the TV commercial habit
 find the sweet spot
 surprise = buzz = exposure
 don’t be timid
 think of advertising as a product rather that a service

7. BACK TO THE FUTURE
 Crispin’s measures:
 Back to the firm's "Have It Your Way" tagline
 New TV commercials campaign: “The Office”
 www.subservientchicken.com: the chicken video
 Subservient TV
 Photos
 Chicken Mask
 Tell a Friend
 BK TenderCrisp
Within the first ten days, 20 million people visited the site

8. SUBSERVIENT CHICKEN-CHAPTER 2
 2005
 To launch a new BK product “Chicken Fries”:
 www.coqroq.com (Real band or just a promotion?)
 Target market: Young Men
 Critics:
 Not entertaining other groups
 Ruffled the feathers of real metal band Slipknot
 Crude attempt to buzz among teenagers by genital humor
 Eerie 2004 campaign
 100morders of Chicken Fries in the first month

9. A VIRAL TURNAROUND
 Would Crispin’s campaigns grow BK's diminishing market share?
 Can Crispin produce new ideas to keep BK strong?
 New Crispin ad: “Manthem”
 BK was on the verge of Public Offering.
 Mr. Salguiero:
“All opinions boil down to traffic and sales. Once that happens, everybody
has to shut up with their opinion. We have a very old franchisee base at
this point, and some of us don't understand our customers. We have a
lot of gray hair.”

10. Questions
 1.Who is BK’s target audience and what are its communication objectives for that
audience?
 Slide 4 : younger crowd and low income familes.
 2.With its focus on the "super fan," does BK risk alienating other customers? What
are the implications of this?
 3.Why is viral or buzz marketing effective? Analyze the design of the subservient
chicken site’s message, including content, structure, and format. What can you
conclude from this analysis?
 4.Do the TV and viral elements of the Burger King Campaign work well
together? What additional elements and media might CPB add to the integrated
marketing communications campaign?
 5.What other recommendations would you make to Burger King and CPB to help
them improve the integration of BK’s promotion mix?