The Social Why Behind Burger King's Chicken Fry

Social media plays a big role in Burger King's marketing, between its funny tweets to the relaunch of its chicken fries. ClickZ caught up with the brand's senior media director.

burgerking-adam

While social media listening is important to every marketer in 2015, Burger King is one brand that has taken it to the extreme and altered its menu because of Twitter.

“Social has changed the way we look at our business,” says Adam Gagliardo, who was recently promoted to senior director of media and communications after serving as the brand’s director of digital marketing and social media for a year and a half. In town for SES Miami last month, ClickZ stopped by Burger King’s headquarters and spoke with Gagliardo about controversial tweets, teaming up with Instagram influencers, and social’s role in the return of chicken fries.

 

ClickZ (CZ): Burger King discontinued chicken fries and then famously put them back on the menu because people were so vocal on social media. What was that experience like on your end?

Adam Gagliardo (AG): It’s pretty amazing because we really just started to get deep into social listening. We could see that people were angry and when we really started to track the volume over time, we’d see the spikes and measure the sentiment. That was when we saw the passion; not only was the volume there, but the passion. People took it so personally – someone threatened to kill their dog if we didn’t bring back chicken fries. At that point, it was like, “How do we address this?” [Disclaimer: That person did not actually kill their dog.]

CZ: How did your relaunch go, with Gloria the chicken?

AG: A lot of people engaged with the idea itself and Gloria [the chicken who decided whether specific Burger King locations will carry chicken fries by choosing between feed bowls labeled “yes” and “no”] was kind of a fun entry into the product and it got everybody more excited for the relaunch. The most exciting thing for us was the reaction; we saw a lot of conversation – over 200,000 tweets. This product is really resonating with the audience the second time around. Social media is a great launching point to do this because that’s where we first saw the conversation happen.

CZ: Fast food chains are having trouble with Millennials at the moment. Does partnering with people like [Instagram celebrity] The Fat Jew for campaigns help you reach that younger audience?

AG: We love to work with influencers who are a little bit of risk-takers, who have sense of humor, who don’t take themselves too seriously. People like The Fat Jew and Scott Disick, people who are just living their lives they want to live, are in line with our brand persona. With The Fat Jew, he really is the one that comes up with the ideas. Have you seen the [Instagram] post where he got his belly button pierced and made a belly button ring with a chicken fry? There are less paid opportunities on a lot of the platforms where the influencers have a lot of their audiences – we have some stuff coming up with Vine – so it does make for getting better reach.

CZ: Which social platform do you find works best for Burger King?

AG: I hate to say best because they’re all different. Each platform has evolved so much: the content is different and people engage with the content differently. I really love our Twitter. We spent a lot of time to work out who we are as a brand, what our voice sounds like. The team that works to hat has a great sense of humor. We’re not a brand to take ourself too seriously and I think on Twitter, it just makes sense there. People really feel like you they have a relationship with us – they literally talk about falling in love and knowing someone loves them when they bring them Burger King.

 

Subscribe to get your daily business insights

Whitepapers

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

Whitepaper | Mobile US Mobile Streaming Behavior

5y

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

Streaming has become a staple of US media-viewing habits. Streaming video, however, still comes with a variety of pesky frustrations that viewers are ...

View resource
Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups

Whitepaper | Analyzing Customer Data Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups

5y

Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics f...

Data is the lifeblood of so many companies today. You need more of it, all of which at higher quality, and all the meanwhile being compliant with data...

View resource
Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people

Whitepaper | Digital Marketing Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people

2y

Learning to win the talent war: how digital market...

This report documents the findings of a Fireside chat held by ClickZ in the first quarter of 2022. It provides expert insight on how companies can ret...

View resource
Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy

Report | Digital Transformation Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy

4w

Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Exp...

Customers decide fast, influenced by only 2.5 touchpoints – globally! Make sure your brand shines in those critical moments. Read More...

View resource