Burger King partners with DoorDash for Twitch takeover

Brief:

Burger King partnered with food delivery service DoorDash and video game giant Activision to promote the launch of "Call of Duty: Black Ops 4," the latest installment in the hit game franchise, according to an announcement.
Burger King's "Call of Duty" campaign includes a takeover of Twitch, the Amazon-owned video streaming platform for gamers, that will show the burger chain's king mascot competing against popular gaming personalities and the community of gamers. Burger King restaurants and DoorDash will offer additional surprises during the campaign that lasts from Oct. 12 to Nov. 12.
Fans who order the "Nuketown Whopper Meal" or the "Nuketown 4-piece Crispy Chicken Tenders Meal" from DoorDash's app will receive a code to unlock a "Black Ops" gesture, which lets players perform in-game movements.

Insight:

Burger King, DoorDash and Activision are combining their considerable marketing resources for this year's installment of "Call of Duty," the first-person shooter game that initially debuted in 2003. Their combined efforts and large customer base should help each with a key objective.

The campaign is Burger King's latest collaboration with DoorDash, which the burger chain teamed up with to relaunch its fast-food delivery service. It had previously tested delivery in 2011, before the boom in mobile delivery, but soon ended the feature. With the activation of Twitch, Burger King looks to get in front of the game-streaming platform's 15 million daily active users, who watch 45 billion minutes a month, according to Twitch data.

The campaign could support Burger King as it battles archrival McDonald's in the mobile delivery space. The deal with DoorDash and the hit video game comes as McDonald's rolls out a Halloween-themed promotion that includes a national instant-win game that urges players to download its mobile app for extra chances to win. The game, called "Trick. Treat. Win!" gives customers a one-in-four chance of winning prizes this month, including food, vacations and a Hyundai Santa Fe. Players can win by peeling game pieces on select packaging, and then get another chance at prizes by using the McDonald's app to collect entry tokens for a daily sweepstakes drawing, per QSR magazine.

For DoorDash, the tie-up could urge customers to download the company's app as the startup faces off against rivals like Uber Eats and GrubHub in the quickly growing mobile delivery space. Earlier this year, the on-demand food delivery service introduced a subscription service with restaurant partners Wendy's, The Cheesecake Factory, California Pizza Kitchen and White Castle, another move that could give the company a leg up against competitors.

The campaign will also likely drive additional publicity for "Black Ops 4" going into the key holiday shopping season, where many people gift video games and other electronics. Activision is promoting the game as it faces greater competition from Epic Games, which is partly owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent. "Blacks Ops 4" includes a mode called "Blackout" that's intended to imitate Epic's hugely popular "Fortnite." While "Fortnite" is free to play, the game made a record $318 million in May from microtransactions among players who pay for virtual features, per SuperData Research estimates cited by Recode. "Black Ops 4" likely won't compete too directly against "Fortnite," which is still free to play and is available on smartphones, where the "Black Ops" franchise is limited to PS4, Xbox One and PC.