Why is this work relevant for Social & Influencer?

UNUSUAL AMBASSADORS FOR AN UNUSUAL TIME — In the thick of 2020’s first wave of COVID travel bans, we saw a chance to help out-of-work tropical tour guides, by using them as our brand ambassadors for a social media campaign promoting Hungry Jack’s Tropical Whopper via Uber Eats. The modest campaign reached an audience set of over 2.4m+ tropics-starved Aussies on social, and smashed the sales target by 120% in just one week.

Background

PROMOTING A TROPICAL BURGER TO TROPICS-STARVED AUSSIES — Uber Eats wanted a social media campaign to promote Hungry Jack’s Tropical Whopper, with the ambitious objective to sell 10,000 of the burgers via Uber Eats in just one week, as well as build Uber Eats’ reputation for shaping culture.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

TROPICAL WHOPPER TOURS — We gave out-of-work tropical tour guides something to tour while they couldn’t tour their island paradises - Hungry Jack’s Tropical Whopper burger. Our guides became our unconventional but very well-deserving brand ambassadors, using their natural charisma to describe each of the ingredients like they were landmarks to visit and try.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

LEVERAGING FRUSTRATION FOR FAME — We knew to make waves we had to think bigger than the burger. So we looked at the broader social sentiment around the tropics at the time. We found many young Aussies were venting on social about missing their tropical summer holidays due to COVID travel bans. On the flipside, news story after news story showed that countless tropical tour guides were out of work. The campaign was right for social, by adding to the dialogue already happening on Facebook, Instagram and Snap.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

TARGETTED TO TROPICS-STARVED AUSSIES ON SOCIAL — The timeline was incredibly tight for a multi-country shoot. We engaged friends of friends and travel aggregator site ‘Get Your Guide’ to quickly source 8 tour guides, brief them via video-call, and shoot remotely - contending with nothing short of patchy internet and a tropical monsoon. The guides spoke to camera, talking through each of the ingredients of the burger like they were landmarks to visit and try, with the burger superimposed on screen. The campaign was then targeted to an audience set of travel-starved Aussies on Facebook, Instagram and Snap.

List the results (30% of vote)

Our insight-led brand ambassadors struck a cultural chord with Aussies, even making news in the Cook Islands press who described it as a ‘Whopper Of An Opportunity’. For a modest budget, Tropical Whopper Tours reached 2.4m+ Aussies, and had over 15m impressions. The sales target was exceeded by 120% in just one week, and the campaign lifted Hungry Jack’s overall sales on the app by 10%. What’s more, we saw a 174% week-on-week growth rate. But most importantly, we put the spotlight on some very well-deserving ambassadors.

Please tell us about the cultural insight that inspired the work

Every year, Aussies look forward to a tropical holiday. But in summer of 2020/21, the year we really really needed it, that wasn’t an option due to COVID travel bans. On the flipside, we read news story after news story about tropical countries whose tourist trades were suffering, leaving many tour guides out of work. This two-pronged cultural insight sparked ‘Tropical Whopper Tours’.