Making Pigtails Cool Again Wendy’s
Wendy’s is a beloved fast food brand with a good story to tell and a quality approach to their food. But they had lost their way on what made them great and needed a voice that made everyone pay attention.
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PROBLEM
When “Where’s the Beef” turned 40, Wendy’s needed to regain its’ swagger and share of stomach to attract a new audience that was interested in something more than just the baked potato and salad buffet.
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ACTION
We reminded everyone why fresh beef matters, we gave Wendy a badass personality on Twitter, expanded to new social platforms and seized on every pop culture moment we could.
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RESULTS
•Increased awareness of Wendy’s fresh, never frozen beef by 38%
•Created one of the most retweeted tweets in Twitter history (beating out Ellen’s Oscar selfie)
•Created a MixTape that went #1 on Spotify, #3 on Apple’s Hip-Hop Charts and gained 758 Million Media Impressions
•Created a Snapchat filter for fans to donate their selfie to raise money for adoption and exceeded our donation goal by 336%
•Re-introduced Taco Salads (which promptly sold out) and lifted sales to +3 against a forecast of -1.5% for the month.
•Created a livestream for chicken tenders that took the #1 spot on the Facebook live map.
We wanted to make “fresh, never frozen” as household as “where’s the beef” and position ourselves strongly against McDonald’s. We created the Freezerdig Sweepstakes where we asked people to tag us with the oldest thing in their freezer. The winner won a year of Wendy’s fresh, never frozen beef and Wendy’s won by raising awareness of Wendy’s fresh, never frozen beef by 38%.
The sass of Wendy’s in social didn’t happen overnight, but it was pretty dang close. We started off 2017 taking a shot at McDonald’s that sparked a reenactment from Anderson Cooper. From there, we were off to the races. In 2018, we created over 46 Million new engagements and 963, 921 new followers.
Carter Wilkerson tweeted @Wendy’s to find out how many retweets he’d need for a year of free chicken nuggets. We responded with 18 Million. He responded with “done” and that’s when the #nuggsforcarter campaign began. It got worldwide coverage and landed him a seat across from Ellen Degenerous on her show. He didn’t beat 18 Million, but he bested Ellen’s Oscar selfie and took the throne as the most retweeted tweet in the history of Twitter with 3.5 Million.
It started as a tweet battle between Wingstop and Wendy’s (we won, in case you’re wondering). But Wendy’s fans wanted more and so the We Beefin’ Mixtape was born. We released it organically and it shot up the charts like a bullet: #1 on Spotify’s Global Viral 50, #3 on iTunes Hip-Hop charts. We spent $0 on media and created the equivalent of 76 years of streams in one week and earned 758 Million media impressions.
The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is something near and dear to Dave’s heart. To raise awareness and donations for the Foundation, we tapped into something people do practically every day – take a selfie. Through a Snapchat filter activated on a Wendy’s cup, we created Selfless Selfies. For every selfie donated, Wendy’s donated $5 to adoption. We raised awareness to 12 Million Snapchat users and raised $2 Million exceeding our goal by 336%.
In the 1990s, Wendy’s introduced their Taco Salad. Twenty years later, they wanted to re-introduce it to a younger audience that never knew it ever existed. So we created the We Need To Taco campaign where overzealous GenXers could talk to their millennial kids about Wendy’s Taco Salad. In return, millennials could tell their parents that some 90s trends (frosted tips) should stay in the 90s.
The Wendy’s Double Stack is kind of a big deal, so when it was included in Wendy’s 4 for $4 value meal, that was too good to be believed. To make this news even more memorable we created the Real Impossibilities campaign featuring unbelievable tidbits about animals.
Wendy’s wanted to enter the salad arena offering salads that were high quality, yet not as expensive as Panera. In a perfect world, we would all have $15 to spend on a quality salad for lunch. Truth is, we don’t. In this Perfect Perfect campaign, we brought the fake reality of stock photos to life to sell you on the quality ingredients of Wendy’s salads.