Last week I touched on the fact the Burger King has fully embraced the concept of online and social media marketing Today, I would like to discuss a couple of their online campaigns in more depth: the Subservient Chicken and Meat Haiku.
The BK Subservient Chicken campaign, a huge hit with the masses, is a completely online and user driven campaign. In my opinion, this campaign was a brilliant idea. It hit the BK target market perfectly, attracting all the right people in all the right demographics. The Subservient Chicken is still around, btw, so even though it might be old news now, I am finally getting around to sending the link to my little brother, who will likely get a kick out of asking the chicken to smell its own armpits.
With the success and subsequent waning interest in the Subservient Chicken, Burger King has introduced a few more social marketing campaigns, including its most recent, Meat Haiku.
I am sure that the marketing exec’s at BK are hoping that Meat Haiku will bring in the same amount success and popularity as did the Subservient Chicken but I am not convinced that that is going to happen.
My pessimism stems first from the fact that BK’s prime target market is young and male; In other words, my above mentioned brother. While I can see my brother spending some extraordinary amount of time ordering around a hapless chicken man, I cannot see my brother staying interested in poetry, even humorous, ridiculous poetry, for that long. Another concern is that it lacks the instant gratification of the Subservient Chicken. Ask the chicken to hop on one foot and he immediately does so. Ask him to act like he is on fire and he will start rolling around on the ground, flapping his wings as soon as you click “enter” . With Meat Haiku, however, you have to submit your poem, enter some personal info, and then wait for your haiku to be approved – or not. I am not sure my poem was approved. I might go back and check to see but then again, I might not.
Now let’s discuss a couple of things Meat Haiku does right. To begin with, it actually explains what a haiku is and how to write one. Also, there is a purpose for creating an ode to BK in the form of a Haiku; there is a contest option that gives you the chance to win a BK gift card. The site offers you the opportunity to email a friend info about the page and offer them the chance view your poem and to win a BK gift card. And finally, there are not a lot of visual distractions on the site or buttons that might confuse the purpose of the site. Basically, you write your poem, you wait for it to be approved, you enter a contest, you tell a friend, and you view other poems. After all that is done, you may visit the main Burger King website or, more likely, you have made yourself so hungry by conjuring up images of big juicy burgers whilst creating your poems, you will jump in the car and head to your nearest Burger King.
Whether or not Meat Haiku reaches the same level of popularity as Subservient Chicken, there is no doubt in my mind that Burger King is charging full steam into the social media landscape, and in doing so, establishing as a leader in this platform.