The Results Are In: Whopper Freakout Worked

Regular readers of So Good know that I was one of the first bloggers to post about the Whopper Freakout campaign, praising it as “genius.” In early January, I conducted an analysis of the Whopper Freakout campaign at its one-month mark, looking at the traffic the site had generated, the number of times the video had been viewed, and increases in Google searches for the term “Whopper.”

However, one of the lingering questions my readers had was, “have these ads increased the sale of Whoppers?” Well with the release of Burger King’s 2nd quarter earnings reports, the answer is a resounding YES.

A recent AP article about the burger company’s earnings leads with the headline: “Whopper Helps Boost Burger King: 2nd-Quarter Profit Rises 29 Percent on Whopper Sales.” Another report cites a quote from Burger King that in the past quarter, Whopper sales “were up by double-digits.”

Not only were Whopper sales notably up in the past quarter, there seems to be no doubt among Burger King executives that the Whopper Freakout campaign is one of the reasons why. The company cites an IAG survey that I have previously referenced, showing that the ads have been very effective:

“Burger King is bullish about its Whopper Freakout campaign and expects strong sales to continue this quarter despite the struggling economy. It cited IAG research that showed Freakout commercials were twice as effective as the brands’ competitors in terms of consumer recall and likeability metrics.”

We had to wait for the 2nd quarter sales numbers to come in, but now that they have, I believe that all the evidence I have laid out so far, combined with these increased sales numbers, shows indisputably that the Whopper Freakout campaign has been a big success.