How Burger King's Anti Youtube Pre-Roll Campaign Helped Sell Whoppers

Let’s keep it straight — YouTube pre-roll ads are effective but annoying.

And have been popular with advertisers since 2010.

But because of this, in 2013 Burger King launched an anti-pre-roll campaign to address the hate to sell Whoppers.

Quick Context

The Stunner Meal is a season special specific to New Zealand.

Burger King discovered an insight within their target market.

Nobody likes it when pre-rolls disrupt their YouTube rabbit hole.

Skippable pre-rolls were still relatively new.

So, what Burger King did was attach their brand to the underlying tension aka the blood that boils every time to push their Stunner Meal.

Burger King’s Ad Strategy

Over the course of a day, they created 64 different ads.

Each ad directly reflected viral YouTube search terms, ranging from “Jimmy Fallon clips” to “Crazy Animal Attacks.”

When a viewer clicked on a video, they had to watch two guys at Burger King, groaning about how this pre-roll was preventing the viewer from watching the video they clicked on.

One of the actors mentioned the exact search term that led the viewer to the video.

It ended with a pop-up graphic displaying the special.

Finally, the actors shooed the graphic away, describing it as a “stupid incredible deal.”

Did It Work?

With no additional advertising, stunner meals sales rose 16%.

Burger King also saw an Ad Click Through Rate 32% above average.

There Are Three Things That Made This Effective

Three things stand out....

1. Advertising That Resonates.

Burger King brought a universal truth to light.

Being annoyed by pre-rolls is something everyone felt but never really spoke about.

The ad resonated with their audience.

The viewing experience was more tolerable.

Ultimately, it made an international corporation appear more relatable.

2. Disruptive, Not Invasive.

The creative was very “meta” and interesting enough to keep people engaged.

For the time, this was a fantastic use of irony.

YouTube ads tend to be similar and we’ve trained ourselves to tune them out.

Mentioning the word the viewer searched for is a guaranteed way to be disruptive.

Since it was done in a humorous way, it offsets the initial shock and forced them to pay attention.

3. Personalized Advertising.

You have 5 seconds to capture your audience's attention.

People reflexively skip YouTube Ads.

This is an effective way to personalize ads based on search terms.

The best way to keep your customer hooked is to make advertisements about them.

Wrapping Up

Burger King utilized YouTube keywords to create 64 ads that were contextual to viral search terms.

Here are some key takeaways from their campaign:

1. Resonate with your audience by speaking to the universal truth.

2. Make your creative disruptive not invasive.

3. You can gain trust by addressing the elephant in the room — even if you’re the elephant in the room.