Craft A Western Whopper
View the case- Brand
- Burger King
- Year
- 2018
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Other
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- INGO Stockholm
Objective
Burger King Sweden wanted to lift brand consideration and key associations among 18-to-25-year-olds around the launch of Red Dead Redemption 2, on the strategic bet that consideration converts directly into restaurant visits. The hook was that RDR2's own core loop — hunting game and cooking over an open fire — already mirrored Burger King's flame-grilling identity, giving the brand a built-in reason to meet players inside the hype for the game.
Solution
Playing Red Dead Redemption 2, the player hunts and gathers four ingredients on their own — a bread roll, a wedge of cheese, prime beef, tender pork loin — and opens their in-game inventory on screen. They pull up craftawhopper.com on their phone and point its camera at the TV, scanning the inventory as the site checks off each ingredient in turn. Once all four are confirmed, the site issues a voucher for a free Whopper with a 24-hour countdown to use it. The player then walks into any of 135 Burger King locations across Sweden and trades the voucher for the real burger, closing the loop from the game world to the restaurant.
Results
The campaign gave away 750 free Whoppers (against a 1,000-voucher cap) and generated 863 million impressions. One in five Swedish men and women aged 18-25 noticed the campaign, and among those who did, "delicious" associations rose 39%, agreement that Burger King flame-grills rose 143%, and consideration rose 83%, compared with those who hadn't noticed it.
- 1
The player opens craftawhopper.com on a phone — the experience is built for mobile — and lands on a title screen, followed by an intro that frames the premise: great games make players hungry, and although Red Dead Redemption 2 has them hunting and crafting food over an open fire, it never lets them actually craft a Whopper.
- 2
A recipe screen lists the four ingredients to find in the game: a bread roll, a cheese wedge, prime beef, and tender pork loin.
- 3
The player leaves the site and plays Red Dead Redemption 2 to gather the ingredients — hunting or slaughtering animals for the beef and pork, and finding the cheese wedge and bread roll in the game world.
- 4
Back on the site, the player opens the in-game inventory on screen and holds the phone's camera scanner over it; image recognition checks each ingredient in turn against the recipe until all four are ticked off.
- 5
Once all four ingredients are scanned, a win screen awards a voucher for a free Whopper, capped at 1,000 vouchers total, with buttons to show or use the coupon.
- 6
A 24-hour countdown starts the moment the voucher is issued, giving the player one day to redeem it.
- 7
The player presents the coupon at any of 135 Burger King locations in Sweden to claim a free flame-grilled Whopper, redeemable through the campaign's run ending December 5, 2018.
