Burger King's app hit 1M downloads after trolling McDonald's

Brief:

Burger King's BK App was downloaded more than 1 million times since its "Whopper Detour" stunt campaign earlier this week, CMO Fernando Machado said in a CNN interview. The app also briefly hit the No. 1 spot in Apple's App Store, Adweek reported.
Earlier this week, the burger chain announced it would offer 1-cent Whoppers to smartphone users who go within 600 feet of most McDonald's locations and order from the upgraded Burger King app. After customers place an order, the app navigates them away from McDonald's and toward the nearest Burger King to pick up their food within an hour. The chain worked with agency FCB New York on the campaign, Ad Age reported.
Burger King also trolled McDonald's in announcing a new $6 King Box combo deal by taking out a billboard ad next to a McDonald's location in Chicago. The ad shows the "actual size" of a McDonald’s $6 Classic Meal Deal, which looks like a small dot against a massive white billboard, according to Adweek.

Insight:

Burger King scored a marketing coup with its "Whopper Detour" campaign, which kicked off on Dec. 4 and runs through Dec. 12. The move is part of Burger King's broader effort to promote new order-ahead features of its redesigned mobile app. The rollout triggered a surge in app downloads that propelled the chain's app to the top of the download charts, compared with McDonald's at No. 42. Plus, the campaign received widespread publicity on social media and news outlets, including a glowing interview of CMO Fernando Machado on CNN.

"Whopper Detour" is the first campaign developed by FCB New York for the burger chain. It's one of several efforts spearheaded by the company since appointing Josh Kobza as "tech czar" in order to keep up with fast-food rivals on mobile ordering, payment and delivery fronts. The push has included two promotions with DoorDash, including last week's Dogpper campaign that let pet owners claim a free flame-grilled dog treat for their pooch.

Burger King has become somewhat of a professional at trolling competitors. In May, the burger chain tweeted a prom invitation to rival Wendy's, which is known for its snarky social media persona. Last month, the chain hijacked Black Friday ads to give away free Whoppers. While those campaigns were part of Burger King's "hackvertist" approach to marketing, they likely didn't result in the high ROI of this week's "Whopper Detour" push, which saw almost immediate success and directly translated into higher levels of foot traffic.