Brilliant write up at Advertising Age about a speech that Russ Klein, Burger King’s president of global marketing, strategy and innovation gave at a recent ANA gathering. The theme of the speech was how social media marketing has helped Burger King close the gap on McDonald’s. Some of the highlights of Russ Klein’s speech were:
Turning your brand over to consumers is taking control,” said the president of global marketing, strategy and innovation for Burger King to the crowd of attendees that packed the grand ballroom at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando. “They’ll return it to you in better shape.”
“The iPod consumer is in charge of media, and content is at their fingertips,” Mr. Klein said. “Media consumption has become content in its own right. It symbolizes the democratization of advertising. We’re in full gallop to catch up to consumers.” He positioned the brand as a mischievous “cool uncle” based on the brand DNA of “all that is good about adolescence.”
The chain had to be willing to face some negative reactions, Mr. Klein said, but “we don’t have to go into damage control and spin when somebody takes a swipe at us. You have to be accepting of the fact that they’ll say good things about you and bad things about you. Get over it. We have to find ways to put customers in charge of social currency.”
To me this is the heart of the social marketing dilemma that many companies face. They want to engage with their customers, but they still want to control the messaging. Nobody likes to receive negative feedback and it looks like Burger King has found a way internally to accept negative customer feedback and still move forward. Ultimately, the success of any marketing campaign is measured by ROI. So did the social networking efforts pay off?
“The chain launched more than a dozen new products, which he said drew $1.5 billion in sales. Burger King’s controversial advertising has put it in the top 10 among all brands in recall and likability for 39 of the last 48 weeks and given it more than double the buzz of McDonald’s, according to Googlefight.com.”
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