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Burger King responds to disgruntled McDonald’s fans on Facebook
Beneath all the ribbing, BK still cares about its old friend and its customers.
`Customer is king’ is an adage, and nobody knows it better than Burger King (BK). Why do we say this? Well, going by BK Denmark’s latest campaign, the fast food major appears worried about its own customers as well as those of its frenemy McDonald’s.
It is the latest saga in the love affair between the two fast food brands, where BK Denmark had its customer care agents peruse McDonald’s Facebook page and respond to comments from disgruntled customers.
A 61-second video called `The Whopper Reply’ reveals how BK Denmark pulled off the feat. For instance, an annoyed customer complained on McDonald’s Facebook page, “We waited 2 hours in McDrive!” BK responded, “Well, everyone can have a slow day in fast food. Here’s a quick `Whopper’.” It’s ingenious and will more than likely leave a good taste about BK in the consumer’s mind, than McDonald’s.
BK Denmark pulled off this campaign in partnership with Uncle Grey, a creative agency that posted a video on its Instagram page and said, “We’re happy to launch a new campaign with BK Denmark to promote the new and improved online service! We noticed that our burger friends at McDonald’s have struggled to reply to their own posts and decided to give them a hand. So, we stayed up all night answering messages and giving out free `Whoppers’.”
B&T, a leading Australian publication for the advertising, marketing, media and PR industries, quoted BK Sweden and Denmark marketing director Daniel Schröder as saying, “Customer service is a big part of the entire guest experience and we haven’t been doing a good enough job in taking care of our guests online. When addressing this, we realised there are even more burger fans out there that deserve a reply. We did what we can to help out, hoping some flame-grilled `Whopper’ love can help make things better again.”
And to cap it off, BK Denmark said about the video on its Facebook page, “McDonald's, it’s not spam. We’re just trying to help.” Oh, the cheek.
The BK-McDonald’s face-off is legendary. But recently, the brands decided to come together and shared a kiss to celebrate Finland’s ‘Pride Month’ that takes place in September, instead of June, in most countries. In the outdoor campaign, BK planted a big smooch on Ronald McDonald’s (McDonald’s mascot’s) lips and the tagline read, “Love Conquers All.”
"BK has always stood for equality, love and everyone’s right to be just the way they are," BK Finland’s brand manager Kaisa Kasila stated, as per MediaPost. "The only instance where it might not seem so, is when we’re bantering with our competitor. But we want to be clear – it all stems from the respect we have for them. And we know McDonald’s stands for the values we stand for, too."
TBWA\Helsinki created this campaign, which "sprang from our desire to celebrate love in all forms," Kasila continued, "We thought, what a better way to convey our values than by portraying an all-encompassing kiss between BK and McDonald. We wanted to show that in the end, love always wins."