Burger King encourages people to be heroes by staying home

Dive Brief:

• Burger King has launched a new ad promoting its delivery app and staying home during the coronavirus pandemic shutdowns, according to materials the company shared with Marketing Dive.
• “Stay Home of the Whopper” encourages consumers to be “couch po-ta-triots” by staying home to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. Burger King has waived its delivery fee on orders over $10 on its app to boost app orders.
• The fast food chain is also donating 250,000 Whoppers to nurses through the American Nurses Foundation. The organization will share codes that nurses can use to order the sandwiches from the BK mobile app. Consumers can donate $10 to the American Nurses Foundation Coronavirus Response Fund by texting THANKS to 20222.

Dive Insight:

Burger King is taking a stand to encourage consumers to honor the CDC’s social distancing guidelines and stay-at-home orders in a playful way that also salutes the healthcare professionals who confront the pandemic daily. The ad plays up how easy it is to be a “hero” in these times by staying on your couch and ordering food delivery, tweaking the chain’s “Home of the Whopper” tagline into “Stay Home of the Whopper.”

Burger King has an opportunity to drive app downloads at a time when traffic at its stores is likely down due to shutdowns. The delivery option offers the brand a better way to sell its products and still support its employees from the general public, since delivery offers better distancing options than in-store service. Previous Burger King marketing efforts have pushed its app and delivery options.

The ad also shows how the fast food company is helping out during the coronavirus, by donating Whoppers to nurses and by waiving delivery fees. Additionally, they are letting people know how to contribute to support the American Nurses Foundation Coronavirus Response Fund. Consumers are responding positively to some ads that address the coronavirus, according to a recent Ace Metrix report that found that 84% of consumers said brands should help out during the pandemic.

Taking a proactive stand can lead to positive brand association, at a time when companies are seeing revenues drop. This campaign comes as teen spending has hit its lowest point in almost a decade. Teens, who spend 25% of their income on food, their top share of spending, have tightened their budgets this spring as the coronavirus worsened and more people self-quarantined, per Piper Sandler. The research found that self-reported spending for the age group fell 13% year-on-year and 4% sequentially from Feb. 17 to March 27, reaching the lowest point since the fall of 2011.