Toronto-based Burger King Canada is hoping to fan the flames of its customers’ burger cravings with a national media campaign focusing on its new broiler technology.
The campaign starts on Monday and runs for a month, in support of the extra-thick premium Steakhouse XT burger line, and the new, first-in-Canada broiler it is cooked on.
Targeted at Burger King ‘superfans,’ the campaign includes a national TV buy across specialty and conventional channels (with a skew toward specialty) with 30- and 15-second ads and 30-second radio spots across several broadcasters. Creative on the web and radio elements were handled by Taxi 2 in Toronto. English TV content was adapted by Taxi 2 for the Canadian market. Media was handled by Toronto’s Initiative.
A digital buy features an interactive display ad in which viewers are invited to light a virtual candle on a fancy table to set the mood for the premium flame-broiled burger. When the candle tips over and lights the table on fire, the text displays ‘Whoops. Maybe fancy isn’t your thing.’ The ads are appearing on CTV specialty sites Space, Comedy and Discovery, as well as MSN.ca, TheScore.com, and a Suite 66 network buy.
‘We want to make it interesting to them, to be intrusive and to get their attention,’ Jason Keown, senior director of marketing, Burger King Restaurants of Canada, tells MiC of the digital strategy. ‘And have something a little bit playful matches our brand.’
While the media elements of the campaign are largely traditional for the brand – although the percentage of digital is steadily increasing with each media campaign, Keown says – the choice to promote back-of-the-house technology in a media buy is an unusual move for the brand.
‘This is such big news because it does speak to our flame-fresh taste, and we believe it is a differentiator for us,’ he explains, adding that the new broiler is proprietary to the brand and will allow it to develop new products that were previously unavailable as a QSR product, such as BK ribs and stuffed burgers.
