AdMiration feature: Burger King’s “First Kiss” Foodfillment Series

For this week’s AdMiration feature, we researched Burger King’s “First Kiss” ad. 

This ad is part of their “Foodfillment” campaign that’s aimed at encapsulating the complete joy that comes from finishing a Burger King meal. 

Read on to get our 3-2-1 snapshot of the ad (3 facts, 2 learnings and 1 reflection) and learn how their ad was received based on our data.

The ad opens to two teenagers leaning in for a kiss. Once they do, the boy says “Wow, that’s…” and the girl finishes his sentence with “...the best feeling in the world.” A deep voice then interrupts the couple ominously asking, “Is it though?” 

It’s revealed that the voice is coming from the boy’s backpack, in which a man peeks through holding a Whopper. He continues to ask the teenages whether the feeling of a kiss is really better than “Foodfillment, the warm fuzzy feeling of total food satisfaction, like finishing the last bite of a flame-grilled Whopper from Burger King.” 

Now both holding a Whopper themselves, the teenagers admit the man in the backpack is right and they part ways with the boy walking away again revealing ‘backpack man’ saying goodbye with a simple “ta-ta.” The ad closes with an image of a Whopper meal with a drink and fries and the message: “That’s foodfillment. ‘Whopper,’ flame-grilled since 1954.” 

3 facts

• The ad scores in the top 5% of all UK ads in potential to drive immediate sales and in the top 30% in potential to build brand equity and generate long-term sales among men.

• It’s highly unique and distinctive, delivering a strong laughter response from the audience. 

• People found it highly attention grabbing, delivering a clear message of product benefits in an unconventional way, enticing them to purchase. 

2 learnings

• Focusing on a feeling your brand or product elicits can be more effective in connecting with the audience and conveying a benefit rather than solely heroing functionality. 

• Understanding how the category or competitors typically communicate and opting for a different style can hugely pay off in grabbing the attention of consumers. 

1 reflection

Is the feeling your brand or product elicits ownable or is it true for the category? It’s important to distinguish between a brand truth and a category truth when conveying the consumption or usage experience. Find the edge for your brand and capitalize on what is exclusively unique about how it makes consumers feel. 

This ad is one of three in a new Burger King series that are part of a campaign called “Foodfillment” that was created by BBH London and produced by Black Sheep Studios. 

The campaign aims to encapsulate the unique joy that comes from finishing a Burger King meal. It is meant to focus on the eating experience to a level of superiority rather than just convenience. Katie Evans, Burger King UK’s chief marketing officer, said the campaign is “all about satisfaction,” clarifying that satisfaction is more than just being full; it’s about quality, delicious ingredients and getting value for money as well. 

You can watch the other ads here.

The ad scores in the top 20% of all UK ads in potential to drive immediate sales (Sales Impact: 84) and in line with the average ad in potential to drive brand equity and long-term sales (Brand Impact: 46). 

For men however, the ad is particularly impactful; scoring in the top 5% on sales impact (95) and in the top 30% on brand impact (71) among this group. Men over 35 years old find it even more effective.

The slightly bizarre nature of the ad made it quite unique and different (Ad distinctiveness: 3.8 vs 3.6 norm) compared to what’s been done previously in UK advertising and particularly from a QSR brand. It elicited a strong emotional reaction (Overall emotion: 47 vs 41 norm), driven by a significant outperformance in laughter (28% vs 6% norm) as the overall emotion felt after watching the ad. 

Interestingly, both men and women found the ad to be humorous overall but men laughed more intensely throughout it with higher and more frequent peaks of the emotion coming through as the ad progressed. 

People really enjoyed how entertaining and captivating the ad was. The man inside the backpack made people pay more attention as it was so unexpected. 

Here’s what some of our respondents liked most about the ad:

• "The level of humor is spot on. I could watch the advert several times and not get annoyed with it. The message is also nicely conveyed without being too showy off."

• "I liked how different and unique the advert was. It was something I’ve never seen before and it was better interesting to watch. I like everything about it from the start to the end. It caught my attention and will get other people’s attention for sure."

• "It was quite witty and different to other ads I've seen for fast food. It definitely got my taste buds dancing."

• "I found it funny and engaging. I thought the ad was unique and to the point so it wasn’t boring."

• "All of it. The kiss. Then the surprise of the guy in the rucksack eating a whopper from Burger King."

Viewers appreciated how concise and to the point the ad was while also being quite creative. It implicitly delivered a very clear message about the taste of the Burger King Whopper — allegedly better than a kiss! 

When spontaneously recalling the main message the ad was trying to convey, almost half of the respondents mentioned the taste of a Burger King Whopper being great or superior. Furthermore, the most commonly selected attribute for what the ad was trying to communicate about the brand was “has great tasting food,” selected by 75% of the audience. 

With a clear product message, it is unsurprising the ad scored significantly above the norm in driving a purchase uplift for Burger King (23% vs 15% norm). For men, it also made them feel more positively about the brand compared to the average ad in the UK (Brand appeal: 3.8 vs 3.6 norm).

What an entertaining series from Burger King! We look forward to seeing what else Burger King has in store for us with their new ‘Foodfillment’ platform.

What did you think? Let us know by interacting with our coverage of the ad on LinkedIn.

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