SLAMBOARD

Sometimes really silly marketing ploys work amazingly well. Somebody in marketing thought that it would be a great idea to offer a free Whopper to anyone who was willing to ’sacrifice’ (delete) 10 Facebook friends. I would have done this in a heartbeat although I don’t even know if the franchise exists where I am presently living. Alas, it was an idea that worked too well. As this screencap shows, the deal was suspended after thousands upon thousands of people jumped on it.

I would be very interested to know the total cost for this promotion. It’s safe to assume that the majority of vouchers would be redeemed since the chain has 11,550 outlets in 71 countries. The design and development costs for the Facebook App were probably borne in part by Facebook (note: I have NO idea what I am talking about). The cost is nearly irrelevant when you try to get your head around the amount of word of mouth advertising that branches off of this for both Facebook and BurgerKing.

The guy who ditched 10 Facebook friends will be waiting in line at Burger King to get his free Whopper and he will feel compelled to talk about how he got the voucher. The US is the target market of this idea and Facebook has only recently become the #1 social website there. There is still lots of room for increases. Many of the people who are not yet on Facebook are waiting in line at Burger King.

The genius part of this gimmick will benefit Burger King. When friends were deleted, the deletion and the reason behind it was broadcast on the member feeds. Logic would seem to dictate that the people most willing to sacrifice friends are the ones who have a very large number of friends.

Source: Examiner.com