Burger King's Whopper of a Virginal Search Slip-up

Looking for its Latest Viral on Google? Good Luck

Posted by David Berkowitz on 12.16.08 @ 09:53 AM

Whopper Virgins

Burger King's been around the block with cross-channel campaigns centered around online marketing. Heck, Subservient Chicken practically became synonymous with viral marketing, while Whopper Freakout was so good it made me visit the Burger King across the street from my apartment for the first time since I moved there. Whopper Virgins, its latest endeavor, may be the best yet... if you can find it.

The Whopper Virgins experience begins with a TV commercial with a brief teaser that directs you to WhopperVirgins.com. The spot was compelling enough that I noticed the spot while watching the time-shifted "My Own Worst Enemy" through my DVR; it's running heavily during weekend football games. Go to the site and you're treated to a video of Burger King running a Whopper vs. Big Mac taste test with people in Romania, Thailand and Greenland who have never eaten a hamburger before. It's poignant and amusing, if you can tolerate the implicit ethnocentrism.

What if you don't remember the exact Web address and Google it? You still better remember the domain name. While WhopperVirgins.com ranks first in Google for "whopper virgins," it's invisible when you omit the plural.

There are three areas of neglect here:

The domain: WhopperVirgin.com is a parked domain filled with ads for Burger King store listings, Virgin Mobile gifts, Virgin Atlantic flights, Virgin Islands vacations and Virgin Mary checks.
Search engine optimization: The microsite doesn't appear on the first three pages of Google results for "whopper virgin" searches.
Paid search: While reviewing Google's listings over several days, there hasn't been a search ad running on "whopper virgin" queries.

This is a major missed opportunity. Google Trends shows that recently, the volume of searches for the singular and plural versions have been nearly equal. "Whopper virgin" searchers must either go to an intermediary site or refine their search. Why can't consumers 'have it their way' and get to Burger King's site even if they're off by a letter? This multimillion-dollar branding campaign could have covered all its bases with a $10,000 search marketing investment. As it stands now, Burger King risks frustrating consumers instead of serving up one whopper of a video.

(In case you can't find it, here it is.)

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David Berkowitz is director of emerging media for 360i. He has written dozens of articles covering media, marketing and technology for several trade publications over the past decade. Mr. Berkowitz has spoken at Digital Hollywood, Ad:Tech, SMX, OMMA and dozens of industry events, and he blogs extensively, contributing to MarketingVox, nowEurope, AdTechBlog and others. He is frequently quoted online and in print on technology, advertising and media trends.

14 Comments

By eiobri | Princeton, NJ December 16, 2008 01:43:35 pm:

It's suprising that in 2008 we are still reading articles that highlight the need for marketers to pay attention to basic online tactics. Working for an online agency, we find that Paid Search is still the greatest kept secret out there!

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By Max | Venice, CA December 16, 2008 01:58:39 pm:

always a good idea to be sure that Search is part of the campaign and not just something that's handed off to the bastard step child who has no idea what the ultimate goals of the campaign are.
The creative team or the strategists should be sure that all bases are covered.

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By keithrhodes1 | New York, NY December 16, 2008 05:00:12 pm:

You raise an important point here: Organic Search and Paid Search should be complimentary. Once BK recognized the issues with the singular version, they should have immediately supplemented their search strategy (not that they had one) with paid tactics to be available to their eager fans. As a long-time digital marketer, it's so frustrating to see the fundamentals of digital marketing ignored. Did they not know? Did they not care? Brands work so hard to reach this level of program success and awareness, but you can't forget the basics. Creating a distributed presence for a brand requires a holistic strategy and search is a fundamental element that is all too often ignored. www.keithrhodes.com

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By obamagirl | New York, NY December 16, 2008 07:56:43 pm:

Worked for me. I watched the whole thing and forwarded it to several ECD's at other agencies. Wish we had done this.

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By paulmcenany | DALLAS, TX December 16, 2008 08:27:22 pm:

I absolutely love the campaign, but it's too bad that didn't tend to the nuts & bolts...

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By BuddhaBen | Orlando, FL December 17, 2008 10:53:13 am:

Wow, this is unbelievable. i can't believe corporate america is so far behind when it comes to search marketing. i guess this means that SEO isn't dead! www.benjaminrudnick.com

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By JASON | FLAGSTAFF, AZ December 17, 2008 05:04:37 pm:

I wonder if Crispin, Porter is a bit more interested in getting serious about digital beyond flash, after this blunder.

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By adexchanger | New york, NY December 17, 2008 05:16:02 pm:

It's hard to believe - and it isn't - that an agency like Crispin gets embarrassed like this. They're not the first and will not be the last.

It just goes to show how far the agency world (creative, buying, the works) has yet to go. -- AdExchanger.com

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By skinny | Wellington, NZ December 17, 2008 07:19:17 pm:

Embarrassing about the search.

But for most of the people in my work place we won't be eating Whoopers any time soon.

This is the most insulting piece of marketing I have ever seen - and to think how much this must have cost BK! In a recession! For what? So we can laugh at other races trying to eat a burger? Shame on you all.

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By DAVID | DAYTON, OH December 17, 2008 07:38:41 pm:

CP+B is clueless when it comes to SEO- or to accessibility. But, it's not just Burger King- almost all the fast food sites are monuments to Flash- and absolutely useless to the user. Try to get a complete menu from BK, Taco Bell or Wendys- can't.
I wrote several posts long ago about the uselessness of the BK site- http://www.thenextwave.biz/tnw/?p=157 sums it up. What good is spending almost half a mill to run a spot once, if people can't find it on your site?
Crispin clients suffer through this because Ad Age and others refuse to acknowledge that accessibility isn't optional. BK did slightly improve their site- by splitting up the Flash movies, but, in general- it's an embarrassment - as are sites from most of the big agencies (go look at http://www.leoburnett.com/ for laughs).
We routinely work with agencies to teach them how to make Google work for them- few really get it.
Clients should consider hiring SEO people to evaluate their online effort if it comes out of a big agency- at least if they want their moneys worth.

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By krametorg | Redmond, WA December 18, 2008 10:07:07 am:

They're SEO Virgins. What else do you expect?

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By Commerco | Franktown, CO December 19, 2008 06:09:01 pm:

@Eileen -

Not so surprising I think. Most folks are creatures of habit and that includes marketers. If you think about it, new media is still really very new. I started online in 1995, at a time when people simply did the deer in the headlights thing when you mentioned Internet.

The current lack of investment capital is killing a business I've put a whole lot of time and money into over the past few years, so I'm probably going to have to go back to basics and revive some old ideas with some "web 2.0" appeal. I think a lot of the problem marketers face with Internet these days comes down to information overload. Search engines can offer millions of web page choices, people can offer relevant advice to get you to the right choices, something no algorithm is going to match anytime soon. The SEO point in another comment is interesting, but I still do not think it is the best answer.

I doubt BK intended to insult anyone with their campaign (after all, would any company deliberately do that to their own business?), they just seemed to prove that they and their ad agency appear to simply suffer from a disconnect with the Internet that is not unique to them or their industry sector. The Internet forces a bit of a different mindset, but not that different - the basics still apply but there are some extra rules and approaches which must be considered. Failing to consider them results in some unfortunate events.

Part of the reason for web communities becoming so successful rests in their ability to leverage time efforts. You build relationships with people over time and trust their judgment; you help each other by offering links to keep you up to date. After all, isn't that why you end up subscribing to industry journals? It is because you trust the source and the same is also true with real world business relationships.

Most often with new media you are faced with a 20 or 30 somethings who speaks a whole different vocabulary (and one that carries a built in time obsceneness fuse, making it even more frustrating to speak with them).

If you think marketers and agencies are Internet challenged, you should see the disconnect in the travel industry and yet I think that industry remains the biggest revenue producer online.

Sometimes things take time to learn and understand, the Internet is still very much a moving target and just because there is an "it" du jour does not mean "it" will last online very long - that is part of the constructive process we know as the Internet. People need to think and discuss pros and cons and what makes sense. Relationship building, work, proof of competency and execution are still core aspects of business in the virtual world, just like the real world it mirrors. www.marketers.org

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By JOYANNE | NORTH YORK, ON January 1, 2009 08:43:22 pm:

On a positive note, maybe it's a good thing that a lot of big companies are clueless about the importance of SEO. It makes it easier for the rest of us to get rankings when we don't have to compete with the "big players" with millions in their advertising budgets. www.insurancelongisland.net

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By srpatterson | Columbus, OH August 3, 2009 11:25:15 pm:

That ad campaign came and went fairly quickly for a good reason as it was offensive and over the line. I think the company realized this after a week of airing the ads.
Steve
http://BrutusReport.com

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