How Do You Eat Your Burger?

Everyone enjoys their hamburger in different ways. Some people squash it down to make it more manageable, others shamelessly attack it face on, and end up with mayonnaise all over their chin, and everyone knows somebody who insist on eating their hamburger with a knife and fork.

Carl’s Jr. wanted to celebrate these burger idiosyncrasies as they re-launched one of their menu items. Identifying that their target audience were young, digitally aware consumers with a love of humorous content, Carl’s Jr. went straight to the home of humorous digital content – YouTube.

In a new kind of network buy, Carl’s Jr. challenged nine of YouTube’s most popularly subscribed “stars” to make a film demonstrating how they ate their hamburgers. Each of these YouTubers had upwards of 1m subscribers.

The films were launched simultaneously on 3 June 09, with redirections to Carl’s Jr. own YouTube channel. Press impressions also promoted the campaign films. To date the films have received 7.1m views, and occupied a space on the Top Ten Most Watched viral video chart for nine weeks from Ad Age. Sales of the Portobello Mushroom burger, the burger featured in the campaign, doubled across Carl’s Jr. stores.