Food Fight Limited Time Mode

Objective

Wendy's seized the launch of Fortnite's 'Food Fight' limited-time mode—a Team Burger vs. Team Pizza competition—to authentically reinforce its core message of 'fresh, never frozen beef' in gaming culture. Wendy's senior director of media and social Jimmy Bennett confirmed that going after Durr Burger was a deliberate dig at rival chains that use frozen beef. Rather than buying traditional in-game ads, the brand aimed to reach millions of engaged players through direct participation and to demonstrate that brands could play meaningfully in live-service games rather than simply advertise within them.

Solution

In partnership with VMLY&R, Wendy's livestreamed on Twitch on November 29, 2018—the brand's first-ever livestream—for over nine hours, with a Fable-skinned character systematically destroying Durr Burger's in-game freezers in Greasy Grove. Food Fight pitted two 12-player teams against each other, one defending Durrr Burger and the other Tomato Town Pizza, with the objective of destroying the rival team's mascot restaurant while protecting your own. The brand played as an active combatant on Team Pizza, destroying frozen beef storage and leveling the restaurant while gamers watched and participated; after razing the store, the character kept fighting other players, liberally using the game's 'royal wave' emote. The campaign was produced in eight days and sparked organic user-generated content as players destroyed freezers in their own matches; top streamers joined the effort voluntarily.

Results

The Wendy's Fortnite livestream reached 1.5 million minutes watched with more than 250,000 live Twitch viewers, and generated a 119% increase in Wendy's social media mentions. The game developers removed freezers from Fortnite as a result of the campaign.