Program Objectives:
- Leverage VMA cultural relevance to generate Burger King brand love
- Experiment with partnership innovation to drive buzz and intrigue among fans
- Bolster fan engagement by maximizing rewards via the Burger King app
This campaign was inspired by two core insights that gained prevalence during the 2020 pandemic:
- QR codes were quickly becoming a facet of consumers everyday lives and the hands-free scanning technology made a wide range of activities easier during touch-averse, socially distant times, most notably in restaurants and retail stores.
- With music festivals, concerts, and bars shutting their doors during 2020, music lovers were left with a massive gap in their typical entertainment slates for the summer, craving the up-close and personal interaction they’ve learned to know and love with their favorite artists.
With so many of our loyal fans at home and yearning for fresh and interesting entertainment, these insights drove us to our main objectives for the program. These objectives ultimately helped us createa compelling fan experience by authentically connecting Burger King with relevant VMA moments to drive excitement and anticipation throughout the night.
For Burger King’s inaugural VMA partnership, MTV architected a mobile-first, technology-infused branded content series that captivated fans through a sequence of breakthrough creative moments that leaned into pop culture and music themes intrinsic to the VMAs. MTV tapped into A-list rapper and hyper-relevant talent, Lil Yachty, to star in the program, alongside the face of Burger King, The King, establishing his celebrity status.
The dynamic duo of Lil Yachty and The King embarked on a unique VMA experience that came to life in the pre and main show broadcast. In lead up, Lil Yachty tweeted at The King looking for a date to the VMAs. The pair tweeted back and forth, revealing that they were teaming up at the VMAs, generating buzz & intrigue amongst fans. Fans watched the story unfold as The King and Lil Yachty arrived in style to the show, got glammed up for their big VMA debut, and delivered a one-of-a-kind musical collaboration for fans at home. The in-show branded content prompted fans to unlock exclusive rewards through custom pop art-inspired QR codes, ultimately leading to an unexpected, epic musical moment through the magic of augmented reality – a first-of-its-kind VMA experience that brought Talent into fans’ living rooms. In AR, fans had the chance to watch The King and Lil Yachty in an exclusive performance of “Top Down”, right in the comfort of their own home. They could also influence special effects such as lighting and “fire flames” and unlock a chance to win free whopper sandwiches for a year & tickets to the 2021 VMAs.
MTV developed a multi-platform campaign spanning linear, digital, and social channels to reach fans across the full VMA ecosystem.
- On linear, 4x custom in-show branded content pieces aired throughout the broadcast, converting viewers from linear to mobile screens via QR code technology. QR codes in the custom content itself as well as in in-show billboards fueled consistent fan participation during the show via mobile-triggered call-to-actions, which drove fans to the Burger King app for exclusive rewards (a key campaign KPI) and also drove traffic to the AR experience living on a vanity site.
- On digital, the mobile-first augmented reality musical collaboration where fans could bring Lil Yachty and The King into their space was infused with fan engagement layers, including custom lighting effects, fire flames, and unlocked an exclusive sweepstakes opportunity.
- On social, MTV created Twitter banter between Lil Yachty and The King leading up to the VMAs, driving buzz and intrigue for what was to come amongst fans. On the night of the VMAs, MTV, Burger King, and Lil Yachty supported the campaign on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, driving viewership to the custom content and participation in the AR experience. MTV also aligned with VMA’s co-viewing social platform, Twitter Stan Cam, to connect fans with even more exclusive content featuring The King and Lil Yachty.
- The Burger King app generated additional awareness in the partnership through exclusive VMA fan rewards and promotion of the sweepstakes.
The campaign was successful in engaging fans across all platforms during the VMAs and was a prime example in showing the ways in which you can incorporate technology into tried and true platforms such as linear and social to create a holistic, innovative and never-been-done-before fan experience. The campaign served as a case study across ViacomCBS, inspiring additional uses for QR codes and augmented reality experiences to enhance our marketing efforts. The program exceeded key KPIs, as evident below:
- Social: 58M impressions, 3.5M engagements, 19M video views
- 160k sweepstakes entries
- 166k engagements in AR experience
- 38k QR code scans
- 32K AR sessions in total
- 1.24k Numbers of AR sessions per user – There was repeatability as users went back to re-watch the experience.
- 96% lift in purchase consideration
- 89% lift in brand opinion
- 36.2K BK App downloads on day of the VMAs
- Our Twitter Stan Cam and Twitter Amplify tweets generated 33.5M impressions on their own, giving fans exclusive behind-the-scenes content from the show that they couldn’t get on their linear screen.
