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Burger King has been a marketing powerhouse for decades, but TikTok was a whole new realm for the international fast food chain a few years ago.
To help it navigate the new frontier in the U.K., Burger King turned to an independent social media agency that named itself after its mission to reinvent water cooler moments for the digital age: Coolr. The brand started working with the agency five years ago as it was just getting started, so the teams grew together as they laid out social plans.
Adweek talked with the agency and the brand at Social Media Week Europe in London about how BK’s social marketing strategy took shape, especially as it pertains to TikTok.
“We were growing internally as a team, but they were also growing, and I think that journey has allowed us to explore different things and also to take some risks together, to learn about the brand and to grow,” said Soco Nunez, brand and communications director at Burger King U.K.
Adam Clyne, co-founder and CEO at Coolr, added that the team at Burger King took a chance on what was essentially a startup agency at the time with just three employees.
“We have gone on that journey together, and five years later Coolr is 90 people. I attribute a lot of our success to the partnership and an initial collaboration that we have,” he said. “We really wouldn’t be where we are today without that, so we have a special love in our heart for the brand.”
From initial post to viral status
Coolr had been following TikTok as a platform that was bubbling up in 2019, and encouraged Burger King to experiment on the platform. Since there were no benchmarks, the brand and agency used trial and error, and managed to gain traction with a post from 2020 of a guy tossing chicken fries into a container from a distance. Pull back, and the stunt was revealed as a playful hoax.