Wendy’s is extending its tradition of roasting brands and fans this week, and this year it’s doing so on TikTok—not Twitter. The platform change means that fans for the first time will see and hear an animated version of the mascot Wendy dishing out the punishing insults. 

Related: See Wendy's best TikTok zingers for 'Roast Day'

This marks the fifth year that Wendy’s has cracked the “Roast Day” whip; the event dates to 2018 (it skipped 2020). It involves the fast food chain daring consumers and other brands to volunteer to be cut down with insults.

This year, the annual event expands to three days from one, beginning Wednesday.

The brand once again is working with agencies VMLY&R, Ketchum and Spark Foundry. Wendy’s is marking the occasion with a one-time digital deal offering its fans a free order of fries.

Asked what role, if any, Elon Musk's ownership of Twitter played in the decision to switch the roast to TikTok, Wendy's Chief Marketing Officer Carl Loredo said: “We've enjoyed a lot of success with our social voice across a variety of platforms over the years. As demand for both Wendy’s interaction and new approaches to conversational creativity has grown, it became a natural evolution to engage a video-first platform like TikTok for Roast Day.”

Wendy's still does paid advertising on Twitter. “We will continue utilizing all social platforms—Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter—not only so fans know how to get in on the fun, but to share it with friends as well,” Loredo said.

Below, more from Loredo on the platform switch and how a smart-aleck brand mascot is helping Wendy’s build loyalty. The following interview was lightly edited for style and length.

Why is Wendy’s moving the Roast to TikTok?

It’s all about listening to our fans and meeting them where they are. And then you know, we love breaking boundaries and thinking differently. But I think that meeting them where they are is a big part of it.

We’ve seen more and more focus and energy around TikTok and, candidly, the evolution of where our consumers are engaging, videos are playing a bigger and bigger role in that. We love that we created this national holiday, albeit a fake one, but it was time to take it to the next level.

Five years ago, we started National Roast Day. This is the next evolution of that. It’s never been done before, and we’re excited to go do it.

Related: See the most vicious Wendy's roasts of 2022

It’s a little bit different than Twitter, it would seem that things might not move quite as quickly as they used to?

The intent is for it to move along very quickly. As we’re working with our fans, the intent is for them to submit videos, and then, given the amazing power of our team, our intent is to be able to turn those around relatively quickly and re-engage.

What we’re known for, and what’s expected of our fans, is to be real and be in the moment. And so that is absolutely our expectation as we’re jumping into the TikTok platform. This has been a year in the making. And, you know, candidly, a big piece of it was building the technology so that we could move quickly and make sure that as we’re engaging with our fans, we’re able to have all the different components, including the video, come together very quickly.

What needed to be invented? And was there a discussion about how Wendy was going to look and talk?

In the world of Roast Day before, people heard those roasts in their own head, with their own inflection. And now, we’re out there and the expression will be there, the tone, the voice, all those different pieces coming together. So the team has certainly done quite a bit of work on the research behind it, and getting in front of our consumers to make sure that we’re approaching it the right way. And I think you’ll see a range of engagement.

On the tech side, I can't give away all of our secrets. But let’s just say that there’s been quite a bit of work put into a custom app that we built, and it actually captures, in real time, facial expressions and translates that to the video that you'll see as we engage back with a consumer. So the voice goes through, and then that emotive performance literally gets built at the tap of a button. And so that’s what was behind our ability to go be able to do this on TikTok, to drive the video side of it, and ultimately, be able to deliver in real time, because otherwise, it just all gets lost in translation.

Who are your writers?

We’ve got a great team of folks ... we'll be all working together to make sure we get it right. But as you know, this is something that’s been evolving over time. And certainly, it’s all coming from Wendy’s … it’s a collab between a number of amazing agency partners, the Wendy’s marketing team and social team, and then engagement with some other cross-functional folks.

Why do so many brands want to stand up and get roasted?

I think first of all, we see a number of brands that are trying to drive their social presence. And I think in some ways, they’re like, hey, if we can get Wendy’s to participate, even by roasting us, it’s a great way to get up.

But the other piece of it is the authenticity around it. And we’ve been able to have some fun with it. And so going back to some of the different engagements we’ve been able to do whether it’s Anheuser-Busch or Oreo, or a variety of folks, you’re talking about hundreds of millions of authentic impressions. And it’s a fun day that people look forward to. So they're excited to be a part of it.

Why does Wendy’s want to do this?

Well, let’s go back to the beginning, which is really being able to find the right way to engage with our fans. The authenticity behind it is so powerful. We’re literally the only brand that has the capability to be able to go do this, meet consumers where they are, have those conversations and be able to show that we're going to continue to evolve with them.

You’ve seen what we’ve done with Roast Day on Twitter five years ago, but we’re also done a lot of gaming. We jumped into Fortnite and played a game in an authentic way, and you saw the results of that, leading to us being one of the No. 1 streamers on Twitch. There’s the way that we participate in music and the fact that we created our own mixtape. So it's just all about us driving the social engagement with our consumer, regardless of the platform, and the reaction that we’ve seen.

Also read: 5 new TikTok trends that brands can follow

We started this journey five years ago, and it’s continued to evolve. But as a brand, it’s about that authentic engagement; the more that we can do that, the more that people come to love us as a brand, and therefore get super excited about engaging with our food as well. And that’s who we are. That’s what we’re all about. And it’s a fun opportunity for us to provide consumers a great moment in their day. And ultimately, whether that be with our food, or what we’re doing through social, or a variety of different other ways that we're engaging with folks, we'd love to be that moment in their day that they can just truly enjoy.

Wendy is a little bit of a smart-ass online. Can you talk a little bit about the evolution of Wendy as an online figure, and what she’s come to be?

That’s a great question. It’s a big part of what we've talked about, particularly in this engagement. Because the reality is that it's a very different world to see a smart ass in print, versus that coming to life in the form of a video.

It's always been a part of our brand voice. We are the challenger. It’s the position that Wendy’s has had since 1969, when Dave [Thomas] created this brand. And it’s all about doing things the right way, making sure that folks know the difference. We use fresh beef on every hamburger, because it tastes better, we use real dairy in our Frosties, we have the best french fries out there in the market, because we want to do right by our consumers.

And so I think you see a bit of a smart-ass. But it’s really more about that challenger, to say, “Hey are you paying attention? I’m going to give you a little edge to make sure you are.” And so that’s been a piece of it.

As we think about these different platforms and how we engage, there’s certainly room, and the right time, for edge. And there’s also time to come in with more compassion. So it’s what consumers expect … People are actually pushing us to do more, and push it harder, versus pulling it back, which has been interesting.

So it’s something that we’re thinking about. But, you know, I think we’re one of the few if not the only brand that can be this sassy with our fans, because we have that kind of relationship with them. We only roast the ones we love. And I think that love, that mutual shared respect, is what allows us to be able to go do this and it’s why we're the only brand in the world that can go pull it off and have as much fun and lean in as hard as we do.