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Tag Archives: burger king

Did my blog change Burger King’s bomb creative?

By Chris J Reed // 18 April, 2013 – 6:44 am // No comments

You may have seen my blog on April 1st about Burger King’s new BOMB advert which was illustrated by a nuclear bomb explosion (see left).

Many people thought that it was an April Fool’s joke such was the bad taste and poor creative.

However it was not, it was a serious Burger King marketing campaign that as far as I am aware was used in various countries not just Singapore where I saw it. Read More »

The story of the Burger King Twitter hack [infographic]

By Polly Becker // 21 February, 2013 – 3:09 pm // 3 Comments

A nice infographic snap shot here from social media monitoring firm Synthesio of the social media story of the week. Burger King provided many laughs, as its Twitter account was temporarily rebranded to look like rival McDonald’s, and a few lessons about password security.

Synthesio identified a whopping 450,000 tweets linked to the hack, with the peak conversation taking place at 2pm with 160,000 tweets in one hour. Read More »

How you can make the most out of social media disasters

By Jim Coleman // 20 February, 2013 – 11:07 am // 3 Comments

Jeep's Twitter page was hacked and taken over by Cadillac brandingWhen it comes to recent social media disasters, there are no shortage of examples.

Back in November, I did a fairly comprehensive run through of the social media fails in 2012, which included a prestigious roll call of brands such as Waitrose, McDonalds, Gap and Qantas – these household names, and many more, had all suffered from a social media fail.

So far in 2013, we’ve seen less ill advised campaigns, but more high profile disasters of a different kind. This week, the Burger King Twitter account was hacked by an unknown internet vigilante who posted a series of controversial (and clearly inaccurate) tweets, including one that stated the fast food giant had been bought by its main rival, McDonalds. The hackers, obviously pleased with the furore they had caused, then moved swiftly on to Jeep’s Twitter account, which last night was displaying a Cadillac logo. Read More »

Burger King gains 30,000 new Twitter followers as account returns after hacking incident

By @gordonmacmillan // 19 February, 2013 – 9:20 am // 5 Comments

Burger King has returned to Twitter with almost 30,000 more followers after its account was hacked last night and rebranded as McDonald’s. The burger chain lost control of its account and began sending out a string of McDonald’s related tweets.

The @BurgerKing Twitter account had little more than 80,000 followers when it was hacked, however, in the wake of the account takeover this has leapt to 111,314 giving it a gain of 30,000 followers and a wave of free publicity. Read More »

Does your brand need a mascot to be successful in social media?

By @gordonmacmillan // 26 March, 2012 – 11:02 am // No comments

Do you need a Flo? Progressive has had great success with its masco FloBrands are being increasingly successful in social media by using humorous mascots, according to the WSJ. We’ve seen plenty of evidence of that in the UK with Dulux recently reinstating its dog and how brands as diverse as Burger King’s “The King”, Compare the Market (Meerkat) and Go Compare with its opera-singing mascot, Gio Compario, have used them.

The report says that ad executives believe consumers on Facebook are more likely to bond with a character than the traditional company page on the social-media website pumping out company and product news. Read More »

Google gets ready to launch Google+ for business as estimates say it has 44m users

By @gordonmacmillan // 26 September, 2011 – 8:45 am // 6 Comments

After a few months of testing Google is getting ready to roll out business user accounts, which have to date only been available to a couple of test accounts, namely Ford and General Motors, as reports suggest it is nearing 50 million accounts.

Last week Google opened Google+ to everyone. Users had previously needed invites to join Google+, but in an effort to speed its growth Google threw open the doors to the beta testing of its social network. Read More »

He’s a social media guru; he’s heading to Edelman

By @gordonmacmillan // 14 December, 2009 – 9:58 am // No comments

We swear social media has more guru’s than Las Vegas has gamblers. This one, David Armano, is heading to global PR firm Edelman to become the agency’s senior vice president of digital after eight months at social media start-up consultancy Dachis Group.

Ad Age reports that Armano will work with Steve Rubel, Edelman’s senior VP-director of insights, and will report directly to Rick Murray, president of Edelman Digital. Read More »

Social Media Talk IE slips again, Billy Idol looks surprised by Dan Leahul, Feb 03 2009, 03:10 PM Another month for Microsoft, and another drop in market share for its Internet Explorer browser; now resting at 68%, it’s lowest point in seven consecutive months. Last year, IE sat blissfully, at 75%, however this preceded the release of Google’s Chrome, which combined with the growing popularity of Firefox and Apple’s Safari, have repetitively chipped away its unearned dominance. Prone to attacks and lacking the add-on, open-source muscle of its counterparts, it’s a wonder why so many people are still using it. But again, not everyone really cares about these trivial things. Nerdom aside, Firefox continues to grow, now at 21%, jumping up three percentage-points in the same seven months that IE lost seven. However, all it not lost for Microsoft. It’s ready to fully release IE8, the new-classic, which is receiving positive reviews. Some features include InPrivate browsing, which records no web history when asked not to. Google InCognito function provides this with Chrome and Firefox has its Stealth privacy mode. The browser itself is apparently faster, though likely not as quick as Firefox, but includes a new feature “web slices” a tabbing function that allows quick(er) access Twitter et al. Also Microsoft has been enjoying some really good buzz about its new version of Window’s (Windows 7) after continual bad press about its flawed Vista OS, which regularly aggravates me on my laptop at home. With two major, major releases on the horizon, Microsoft’s inevitable browser market loss doesn’t seem like a huge deal. As a side note, kind of, have you checked out some of these Microsoft SongSmith atrocities yet? The Caribbean-infused Billy Idol ‘White Wedding’ is swiftly becoming a YouTube classic, not to be missed. Select Tags… SaveCancel Filed under: YouTube, google, digital, microsoft, internet explorer, firefox [Edit Tags] 1 comment(s) (GakiAttack, not one of the) top seven Twitter apps by Dan Leahul, Jan 29 2009, 03:31 PM I’m still trying to figure out the point of GakiAttack, a Twitter application that allows followers to attack one another in a variety of exotic Japanese-branded methods… but I fear that would be looking too far into its inane simplicity. According to its website, Gaki is: “not only Japanese for ‘spoiled child’ and the person who is ‘it’ in a game of tag, but it’s also a Japanese Variety Show that’s been making people laugh since 1989. Four guys spend 24 hours locked in a gymnasium being terrorized by a group of ninjas. What’s your favourite attack? The big swing? The scorpion death lock? If you love ninja moves, samurai weapons and just plain old ninja stuff, then you’ll love watching these episodes of 24-Hour Tag available on Hulu.com.” Unfortunately, being lowly UK residents, we are barred from using Hulu, but judging from other insane Japanese gameshows I’ve seen, this one could be filed under “pretty tame”. The application itself informs your follower that they have attacked, without further explanation. For example, I attacked my Twitter-alter ego with an Ippon… I’m not sure what that means. Not to be put off, there are plenty of useful Twitter applications out there, that actually do have a point, I shall list my top 5 7 Twitter apps (excluding TweetDeck because of its ubiquitous awesomeness). TweetBurner: Tracks all the links you post on Twitter and provides statistics, also the ones posted by your friends. TwitBin: Handy extension for Firefox users, puts Twitter right in your browser window. Mr. Tweet: Follow Mr. Tweet, and it will recommend some more people for you to follow. Infinitely better than Twitter’s own “suggested” friend service. TwitPic: Let’s you share photos on Twitter, also allows access from mobile phone pictures. TweetStats: Let’s you know exactly how much time you’ve been wasting on the addicting website, giving you a handy graph of Tweets per hour, month, reply statistics, etc. TwitScoop: A personal favourite, creates a nice cloud image of what’s being talked about on Twitter, it’s mesmerising and is constantly updating itself right before your very eyes. TwitterFeed: Allows you to feed your blog right into Twitter, brilliant. Filed under: digital media, digital, Twitter, hulu [Edit Tags] no comments Should eBay sell Skype? by Dan Leahul, Jan 27 2009, 02:56 PM Rumours have been swirling around the eBay-camp as CEO John Donahoe recently hinted that the company is willing, if not ready, to sell its lucrative Skype business. Donahoe, speaking to analysts about eBay’s drastic Q4 profits, said Skype was a “great standalone business”, which is apparently enough to get industry-insiders buzzing and giddy these days. However, he also admitted that “synergies” between Skype and the rest of the eBay portfolio were slim, which could plausibly mean: sell, sell, sell. Despite the slim-synergy, Skype is clearly a winner, and could attract some decent bids, although eBay might have perhaps been a little too enthusiastic when pulling out its wallet for the online-telephone service in 2005, paying $2.6bn. Some analysts predict Skype could fetch as much as $1bn, which could provide a much needed boost to the suffering internet company, which reported a 30% drop in net profits in the fourth quarter 2008, $367m to $531m. Dismal, especially after eBay’s usual triumphant Christmas season. On the other hand, Skype continues to impress, with over 400m users around the world (I myself one of them) and recent reports of a 26% rise in revenue. Just because it can afford anything and everything, Google’s name has been associated as a possible interested party, along with major telecom networks Verizon and AT&T. Should eBay sell? I don’t think so, Donahoe admitted Skype wasn’t much getting in the way of the eBay business, which is hurting. He should focus on fixing eBay first (cough, PayPal) as it should surely weather the ugly storm that is braced to decimate the digital industry over the next two years, Skype could very well be its water-wings. Filed under: google, digital media, ebay, digital, skype [Edit Tags] no comments Top five websites for Twitter to relinquish its internet crown by Dan Leahul, Jan 22 2009, 03:28 PM Last January, I could hardly imagine myself uttering the word “twitter” without a hint sardonic irony, or even a little resentment. However, come 2009, it’s become such an important part of my daily lexicon that the actual meaning of the word is beginning to fade away in a blissful fog of web-induced ADHD. Frankly, it’s growing tiresome, saying the word. We need something new, something refreshing. Will Twitter be as popular come 2010? Yes, very, very likely. But what’s the next scrappy up-and-comer with a catchy name and “don’t know how we functioned without it” features ready to take the world by storm? In a word, it should be: Loopt. With the staggering number of iPhones being sold across the globe (4.4m in the past three months) Loopt will simply become essential. Loopt is pretty cool and ridiculously easy to use, not unlike Twitter. It shows users where friends are located and what they are doing using interactive maps on their mobile phones. Which a lot of mobile applications are capable of. However, Loopt has the social networking zeal that any successful internet phenomenon should. The app can detects businesses in the vicinity of you and your friends and makes a suggestion based on your preset preferences, it also recommends it to your friends, and lets your friends comment back so you can organise a get-together, for a proper boozer. As if nipping out after work for a quick pint wasn’t tempting enough, now your phone is going to tell you to as your guiltily sashay past the gym. Oh and it’s not just for the iPhone, it works with over 100 other mobile handsets as well. The other four websites to look out for? TV.com, which we mentioned here before, should be at least as popular as hugely popular Hulu; Qik, a YouTube for mobilephone video is incredibly handy; Blip.fm, Twitter-like social networking for the musically-inclined; and finally Cooliris, image based web searching that is addictively helpful. Follow me on Twitter Filed under: YouTube, digital media, digital, Twitter, apple, iphone, loopt, blip.fm, cooliris, qik [Edit Tags] 3 comment(s) Marketing hoax backlash brewing down under by Dan Leahul, Jan 20 2009, 02:30 PM A purportedly genuine Cinderella story, about a distressed Aussie damsel who met the man of her dreams in a Sydney café, and tried to track him down using YouTube and local media outlets, has been revealed to be an apparent marketing hoax. The story, which was meekly covered by Sydney’s Daily Telegraph yesterday, follows a young blonde who met a man in a café (“their eyes met over scrambled eggs,” barf) after a waiter had mixed up their orders. Bang, sparks, love, etc. However, the man then leaves, and without taking his cracking black dinner jacket, which the young blonde confiscates for her own keeping, and through a soppy YouTube video, dedicated email address and a series of racy photographs, tries to track down The Man In The Jacket. The video itself has received over 100,000 views and was witness to almost immediate scepticism. One day later, thanks in no small part by those damn clever YouTube commenters, the story has been revealed to be a viral campaign for an Australian fashion label. The Daily Telegraph updated their story, taking a closer look at the label on the jacket, and found it read Witchery, a womenswear line. However, Witchery is rumoured to be launching in imminent line of menswear. Witchery denies the claim, but the public, that being the YouTube community, isn’t waiting for the jury, and is staging an unprecedented revolt. Some commenters go as far to call the young blonde a “cheap, lying, hussy” and “there is such a thing as bad publicity – its called infamy. Naked Communications and Witchery will certainly see the backlash.” Naked Communications is the marketing group which has been associated with the campaign through an unattributed publicist. Jonathan Pease, the presenter for Australia’s Next Top Model is apparently the executive of ideas for Naked Communications, but he denied any knowledge of any campaign. Watch the video for yourself, that is if you can make it all the way through (it is rather cringe-inducing), and decide if it’s a hoax or not. YouTube “body language experts” (oh, God) are saying it’s obviously an act, and I would have to agree. Filed under: YouTube, digital advertising, viral marketing [Edit Tags] no comments Bushisms: The Definitive Collection by Dan Leahul, Jan 19 2009, 01:53 PM On the eve of the inauguration of the 44th US President, some guy named Obama, GoViral was gracious enough to provide me with proper send-off for number 43, George W. Bush, with a collection of his infamous gaffes, malapropisms and all-around cringe-inducing moments from his eight years at the helm of the Oval Office. Enjoy! 5. Is Bush an “Idiot”? For those more interested, this is a discussion from NBC, trying to determine whether Bush is an illiterate idiot or actually clever, but just not very articulate. 4. Bush Dodges Shoes Thrown by Iraqi Journalist The famous recent shoe attack from Iraq. Bush very swiftly dodges the shoes being thrown at him by an Iraqi reporter. In Iraq, slapping someone with a shoe is the worst possible insult. The United States President seems to handle it fine, though. 3. Top Ten George W. Bush video moments, Late Night David Letterman Here is another brief compilation of Letterman’s favourite Bush mess ups. 2. President Bush Makes Fun of Himself President Bush speaks at a radio & TV correspondents dinner. He is definitely not without humour or charm. It only seems strange that his ability to articulate himself comes out the best, when he is not being serious. 1. Must See Hilarious George Bush Bloopers This is a compilation of some of the funniest George Bush moments during his Presidency. Filed under: YouTube, Barack Obama, goviral [Edit Tags] 2 comment(s) Facebook prematurely ends Burger King Whopper Sacrifice campaign

By Dan Leahul // 15 January, 2009 – 11:24 am // No comments

Facebook has pulled the plug on Burger King’s clever Whopper Sacrifice application, citing privacy issues, after the app was used 233,906 times by 82,771 users in less than a week.

The application, created by Crispin Porter + Bogusky, allowed users to delete 10 of their friends from their friend list in order to get a free Whopper.

It was also, frankly, brilliant.

As part of the campaign, the application also notified the deleted friend that they had been removed from their users friend list using the Whopper Sacrifice app, something that Facebook doesn’t do.

Facebook stopped the campaign for this reason, saying the notification of the de-friending act breaks its privacy rules.

But really, it was the whole crux of the application, what a slap in the face for BK and CP+B.

Especially CP+B.

Finally, when a decent, humorous and clever campaign is developed for the Facebook platform, Facebook shuts it down.

Ouch. Isn’t this supposed to be the future of advertising?

Hopefully the company has some more ideas up its sleeves, as they have been going from strength-to-strength (in my opinion) with their previous burger-scented cologne and Whopper Virgins campaigns. Chin up!

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Um, Crispin Porter, do you want fries with that Cyber Lion?

By candace kuss // 9 January, 2009 – 12:15 am // 4 Comments

No doubt in my mind that another slew of awards will follow the launch of the most on brand, site specific app I’ve seen (probably ever). Whopper Sacrifice is such a fun, fresh concept it makes me want to go actually buy a burger in tribute.

Whopper_sacifice

“What would you do for a free WHOPPPER? Now is the time to put your fair-weather web friendships to the test. Install WHOPPER Sacrifice on your Facebook profile, and we’ll reward you with a free flame-broiled WHOPPER when you sacrifice 10 of your friends.”

As one of the 736 friends of the agency’s popular interactive ECD, I fully expect to be axed. Jeff, just remember we knew each other way back when online advertising was all about optimizing gifs. This app is so clearly spot on and wicked funny that it is even getting what I’d call *real* PR, meaning mass coverage well beyond the expected marketing rags and ranty ad blogs. Way to make your client famous. This story’s everywhere, from the HuffPost to the NY Daily News.

Plus, crossposted on Brand Street.

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