How Burger King manipulated Casey Neistsat and others with a Tweet

Burger Kings takes advantage of YouTubers and Social Media Influencers!

or

How Burger King F$@# over influencers!

OK maybe that’s too harsh, but I am sure these were some idea that came to mind when Casey Neistat made his latest video calling out Burger King.

Why is Casey Neistat pissed at Burger King

Burger King’s social media team/ agency/ 12-year-old-who-knows-how-to-use-twitter-thingie LIKED some random Tweets from high profile personalities from 2010. That is so strange that the individuals tweeted asking WHY?

and BOOM! Job done.

Hook. Line. And Sinker. I am not sure that expression is well known, so using Casey’s metaphor: Cheese in the mouse trap mouse.

According to an article on Complex, it seems like that is exactly the reaction that Burger King was hoping to get which they use to raise awareness for bringing back Funnel Cake Fries (no idea what that is, I wasn’t in the US in 2009). The article says “Burger King is bringing back Funnel Cake Fries, which were first introduced by the restaurant in, you guessed it, 2009. They will be available once again beginning on Thursday, Jan. 24. The fries will cost you $1.99 for nine pieces at participating locations.”

Why did Burger King Like old tweets?

The reason behind liking the tweets is that when the social media personalities tweeted confused as to why Burger King liked their 10 years old tweet, the current followers not only LIKED that tweet but also retweeted it. This is amazing eyeballs and brand name recall.

Congrats on ticking every box on a successful digital campaign. Kidding aside, this was ingenious. It’s taking social media engagement and playing on the curiosity, allowing the brand to be mocked for a bit and then dropping the big WHOPPER of why this was done. Smart, it cost literally nothing or maybe a couple of Quarter Pounders for the team.

Gotta respect this level of game-play!

Burger King Make it right

So Casey was sort-of upset enough that he made a video about all this but he also had a challenge or a call out to Burger King. In the world of social media influences (does everyone hate that word too?) its typical to pay for campaigns. An influencer with somewhat of a following creates some content around a business’s product or service. This is shared on social media, gets exposure and that’s how Marketing in the new world is done.

But Casey and others didn’t get paid for this campaign. They were kinda suckered into it unknowingly. So why did Casey provide even more exposure for Burger King? Casey used this opportunity to pay it forward and help kids charity organizations in return for the exposure.

NICE!

Will Burger King take him up on it? If they were smart they should. Not only will it give their brand even more mileage out of this campaign, not only is it the right thing to do, but the kids will benefit and that is a win-win situation.

UPDATE –  This Tweet just in from Burger King:

sup @CaseyNeistat, we’re ready to meet your “suggestions." slide into our DMs real quick. pic.twitter.com/PjIuwyWtGl

— Burger King (@BurgerKing) January 29, 2019

YES – YES and YES again. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out!!!

(with all the negativity out there, sometimes you gotta love this online world)