Burger King Takes Cannes Crown for Whopper Detour

How do you get a leg up in the fast food wars? Steal the competition’s customers! Not only will it score patrons, it will also get you some swanky, shining hardware.

Twelve years ago, Burger King won the Titanium Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions for “Xbox King Games”. This past Cannes Lions it won again (times three)—gobbling up the Titanium, Direct, and Mobile Grand Prix for its “Whopper Detour” campaign. The work, spearheaded by FCB New York, could be argued as trolling, but whatever one wants to call it, you can’t deny it was effective.

The promotion ignited 1.5 million downloads of the Burger King app, which unlocked a 1¢ Whopper voucher when the user was at a McDonald’s location. Not only was it ingenious, it was also tech savvy. FCB New York had to geofence every Mickey Ds (as the offer only works within 600 feet of one) and used hidden cameras at drive thrus for its commercials.

“It checks off all the boxes,” said Titanium Jury President David Lubars, chairman and CCO of BBDO Worldwide. “It was flawlessly executed, it looks effortless, it’s a future-facing tech hack, it had great sales results, so it was real, it was on brand, fun, human, delighting, and definitely a ‘what the f—.’”

Burger King’s marketing chief reported more than 50,000 people cashed in on the campaign. Burger King’s app jumped to first place in iTunes App Store’s Food and Drink category. If that’s not kingly, we don’t know what is.