Burger King: ad spend in the U.S. 2010-2021

Burger King decreased its advertising spending to 225 million U.S. dollars in the United States in 2021, the lowest level since 2010. Meanwhile, Burger King’s parent company Restaurant Brands International saw an increase of 12 percent in global ad expenditures, reaching 962 million U.S. dollars in 2021.

Burger King: advertising success

Burger King has been widely successful with its unique advertising campaigns, which mostly revolved around trolling the competition. The most recent endeavor of this kind was named Whopper Detour and ran in the U.S. in 2018. The company created an app through which customers could order a Whopper for one cent, but only if they were in the vicinity of… McDonald’s. They were then redirected via app back to the nearest Burger King location to redeem the coupon and enjoy their meal. The fast food restaurant integrated geolocation targeting, mobile app, and coupon strategy in one campaign and earned an estimated 37 to 1 return on investment and reached 1.5 million downloads of the Burger King app, not to mention thousands of social media mentions. The campaign and FCB New York, the agency behind it, also won multiple awards at the Cannes Lions, including the Direct Lions Grand Prix. Before that, in 2018, it was the year of the Burgr King’s famous McWhopper campaign, which was aimed at strengthening the restaurant’s position against its closest opponents in the market of quick-serve restaurants.