Tag: Burger King

Burger King Recruits Top Gamers To Sell Burgers Via Video Games

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Following its controversial Google Home-triggering TV ads, Burger King turns its attention to eSports for its next stunt marketing campaign. As Mashable reports:

Over the next few weekends, Burger King will be operating a “command center” (a.k.a. a restaurant) as it injects itself into your online matches with PlayStation’s permission, according to the company’s press release sent via email. If you sign up with Burger Clan online, someone who works for Burger King will try to play with you and be ready to put in your Whopper order while somehow being an asset to your team.

This campaign is limited to the Spain market and the recruited players will be playing and taking orders out of a Burger King restaurant in Madrid. The company is supposedly hiring “nine professional gamers, champions of the most popular [PlayStation] games,” according to a press release.

What Brands Need To Do
This is an interesting way to leverage eSports influencers to reach the millions of video game enthusiasts, as it mobilizes the online gaming platforms as a new, temporary sales channel. While hiring social influencers to hawk products is nothing new, to do so within online video games is quite an novel idea. For brands looking for new ways to reach younger audiences across the global markets, eSports provide a fertile platform to explore.

For more in-depth analysis how brands can leverage global mega-channels and niche micro-channels to effectively reach key audiences, check out the Global Culture section of our Outlook 2017.

 

Source: Mashable

Burger King’s New TV Ad Intentionally Triggers Google Home To Tell You More

Posted on by Lab Team

Google has yet to officially roll out ad products on Google Home, but that does not stop Burger King to hack the way the voice-activated smart speaker works to co-opt it into its latest marketing campaign. The fast food chain released a new TV spot that features someone in a Burger King uniform ceremonially uttering, “OK Google, what is the Whopper burger?” For any user with a Google Home near their TV, this will trigger Google Assistant to begin reading the Wikipedia entry for the Whopper. Google is reportedly not involved in the ad’s creation.

While this ad is a clever way to grab people’s attention, it is also exploiting the personal assistants to deliver an unwarranted marketing message via a personal home device. Some may find it goofy and write it off as a joke, while others would find it invasive and disruptive.

Ethics aside, this unusual ad highlights not only the increased presence of voice-activated devices at home, but also the weakness of the voice assistants not being able to differentiate the voices of the users. (Google is reportedly working on multi-user support for Home, which should help alleviate this issue.) It would be best for brands to stay clear of such gimmicks and take the growth of voice-activated smart devices seriously by developing branded audio experience to serve customers.

 

Source: The Verge