Burger King launched a Facebook campaign called "Whopper Sacrifice" that offered users a free Whopper sandwich if they "sacrificed" or unfriended 10 friends from their profile. Over 80,000 users participated in the first week, resulting in over 200,000 friends being sacrificed for Whopper coupons. However, Facebook blocked the campaign due to privacy concerns after a week.

1. Install WHOPPER® Sacrifice on your Facebook profile and we'll reward you with a
free
flame-broiled WHOPPER® Sandwich when you sacrifice 10 of your friends*”
What would you
do for a free
WHOPPER®?
“Would you slap the Police?
Would you ditch the Girl you love?
Would you go so far as to turn your
back on friendship?

2. Burger King is a global chain of
Hamburger fast food restaurants!Established in
1953
At the end of FY
year 2013, Burger
King had over:
13,000
79
66%
99%
Outlets
Countrie
s
In US
Franchisee
s

3. Situational Analysis
How much would a company have to pay in order for
you to publicly denounce ten of your friends?
Most branded applications
have relied on the standard
practice of forcing virality
through
These „happy go
lucky‟ campaigns
quickly loose their
effectiveness!
Friend requests + gift
exchanges!=Users are encouraged to grow
and nurture their online
friendships.
Came up
with a
New
Concept!

5. Facebook users were asked to download the “Whopper Sacrifice” widget
into their Facebook page. In the widget, users were then asked to
“unfriend” or “sacrifice” 10 of their friends.
10
Unfrien
ds
One Whopper
Coupon!
The campaign was “live” in early
January of 2009 and is considered
one of the best examples of how to
create positive brand engagement
and viral marketing through
Facebook.

6. When one would delete a friend, that
now deleted friend would receive a
notification that he or she had been
“sacrificed” for a whopper & Vice
Versa!

7.  Burger King‟s ground breaking
“Whopper Sacrifice” campaign
used Facebook as a way to build
a better relationship with
customers –and drive sales.
 Burger King tied the coupon to
an incentive that would, in a
small way, improve customers‟
lives.
 Burger King offered customers
a coupon for a free Whopper –
provided that they first cleaned
up unwanted friends from their
Facebook account.
Strategy
They used the coupons to
track ROI.
Burger King helped
motivate people to
improve their
Facebook account,
and customers got a
deal on a Whopper!

8. Results By the time the campaign ended, over
200,000 friends were sacrificed by over
80,000 Facebook users in slightly over
one week.
After a week of the campaign
over 233,000 people had been
sacrificed from Facebook for
whoppers and the social
media site took action by
blocking the campaign over
breaches of privacy.

9. Learnings  Free stuff is a great motivator
 Witty text copy is hugely important
 Specific to the target demographic
 Old fashioned PR still works best for
original concepts
 Focus on original concepts
 Push social concepts

10. Don’t Sacrifice
me!!
By,
Soumya
Mukherjee