A few months ago, food delivery service Zomato revealed burger was among the most searched foods on its app last year. This coincided with Burger King’s announcement to open 700 outlets in India by 2026. The company registered an annual growth rate of 53.4% in 2021 over FY20, which is the highest among peers, as per Elara Capital.
Burger King India is in the news again. This time, for its “ambush marketing” campaign with brand ambassador actor Hrithik Roshan to promote its Rs 50 Stunner Menu.
For clarity, ambush marketing is when an advertiser "ambushes" an event to deliver a brand message overshadowing the ongoing activity.
So, what happened here? The brand released a 20-second Instagram ad in which Hrithik is seen stepping out of his vanity van and posing for the paparazzi. The actor was “unaware” that a billboard was placed strategically behind him to make it appear that he was endorsing the "Rs 50 Stunner Menu".
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Adding to consumers’ curiosity, Hrithik posted the YouTube clip of the ad on his Twitter page with a smirky comment “This is not done”. Many assumed it to be a genuine protest by the actor against the brand for its “wrongdoing”.
.@burgerkingindia, this is not done.https://t.co/NIkge9XZfH
— Hrithik Roshan (@iHrithik) June 12, 2022
The campaign posted on YouTube and Instagram on June 12 went viral, generating hundreds of views, comments and memes.
The brand has also released three TVCs playing different pranks with Hrithik, catching him off guard each time.
“Fantastic” Prank
“You are the man sir” Prank
“Stunner Menu stuns Hrithik”
Consumers and even some popular brands expressed their feedback openly. Swiggy India wrote, "Brands commenting in comments is the real jugaad." "Free advertisement ka pata nahi, par free entertainment kaise dena hai woh humein definitely pata hai," Amazon Prime remarked.
exchange4media asked senior industry leaders their views on the campaign, what works in favour of the brand and what doesn't and whether the ambush marketing will help Burger King India to woo consumers and expand in the smaller cities?
Dr Sandeep Goyal, MD, Rediffusion
Clever. That is the only word I would use to describe the Burger King ‘ruse’. Smart. That is the word I would use to describe the way they fooled social media on the ‘ambush’. The cat is now out of the bag. The surprise is over and it is business as usual I think, going forward.
Prasoon Pandey, Director, Corcoise films
It will certainly get them eyeballs but nothing more than that. Unfortunately, it has nothing in it to make the audience positively inclined towards the brand.
Shradha Agarwal, CEO and Co-founder, Grapes
The ad has managed to entice the audience with the refreshing concept of hijacking Hrithik Roshan via paparazzi posing. By taking leverage of ambush marketing, Burger King was effectively able to take the social media by rage and engage with the Gen Z and millennial base with a new twist that left them awestruck.
The ad is able to break the clutter where people were so intrigued by the ad that they repeated the ad multiple times which immensely worked in favour of the brand. And in this process, the brand was successfully able to convey the message by taking a smart route.
The clever product integration was the highlight along with the liberty of creative flexibility. By setting an off-script landscape in terms of style, tone and content, the ad entertained the viewers with witty visuals and trickery.
Alaap Desai, Chief Creative Officer, Isobar and Taproot Dentsu
What Leo Burnett Orchard has done is something beautiful with this campaign. It doesn't matter if it's ambush or not. It is a great piece of advertising and that's what is making it famous and shareable. If the brand can hire a celebrity and can package the endorsement in a fresh and interesting was, it is the best way to use a celebrity. It doesn't matter if it is ambush or not. It does the job of what advertising needs to do. Capture people's attention. We are not saving lives, after all. On a good day, the best we can is what this campaign does.
Karthik, Communication Strategy Consultant
“It uses the same CRED celeb-audition style idea where the brand is shown to be smarter than a relatively dumber celeb just to seem different,” Karthik wrote on Twitter.
“The idea seemed very forced to me, and is only one step above a celeb simply acting as if he/she loves what he's otherwise paid to do - only difference is that here he's acting as if he's surprised that he was taken for a ride. If our bar is so low, then this is very funny, but our bar is not/need not be that low.”
Vinod Kunj, CCO and MD, thought blurb Communications
This is 'camouflage marketing' where an ad camouflages itself as a candid moment and goes viral and picks up steam using real and planted stories. A new and novel use of a brand ambassador. Good to see Burger King bring to India some of the clever advertising they have been known for, in other parts of the world.
What the makers say
When asked about his reaction to mixed reviews from ad experts, Pravin Sutar, Head of the Creative Leo Burnett Orchard which created the ad, told e4m, “We were working on the campaigns for the last 8-9 months. Since this campaign was about the Rs 50 Stunning Menu, we thought that bringing in celebrities into the ad would be tough. That's why we came up with this idea to use.”
“Some people might argue it will work or it won’t but normal people are responding positively. The campaign will remain stuck in people’s minds for a long time. The Rs 50 Stunner Menu is really delicious. This campaign has just given it a push,” Sutar said, adding that more such ads in this series are in the offing.
In his statement shared earlier, Kapil Grover, CMO, Burger King India said, “We are always discovering new ways to engage with our Gen Z & millennial guests. A never before, celebrity hack style content, based on the insight of the “Great Indian Jugaad” became the tenet of our #EkDumPachaas campaign. The campaign not only fits our real and authentic filter of communication but also beautifully personifies our Hackvertising mindset, all keeping our TG in sight.”