Burger King Turns to Mobiles to Serve Its Customers
Burger King is letting its customers get their information their way — and more and more, that way appears to be via a mobile phone.Mobile website
Although McDonald’s Corp. and other rival chains have toyed with mobile marketing tests, such as text-messaging sweepstakes and on-pack promotions, Burger King has become one of the first fast-food chains to establish a mobile website. The site, BK.com, offers mobile access to nutritional information and has a store locator with maps and directions. Burger King plans to expand the site in the future as mobile media evolves.
“It’s all about having it your way, information wherever and whenever they want it,” said Gillian Smith, global senior director of media and interactive, Burger King. She said 70% of U.S.wireless users have devices capable of accessing the mobile web. In addition, “we want as a restaurant to get consumers as close as possible to the purchase decision,” she said. The effort is the most recent in Burger King’s mobile push. Its Super Bowl “Whopperette” spot was available as a mobisode. Burger King also created an integrated campaign involving product placement, internet and mobile elements around the Fox unscripted drama “Unan1mous.”
More than just one-off programs
But the website indicates the fast-food chain is interested in more than just one-off promotions. The chain aims to have a continuous mobile presence, said Michael Nevins, VP-sales, Crisp Wireless, an interactive company that handles mobile campaigns and worked on the program.
From its previous efforts, Burger King discovered that customers responding to mobile promotions tend to be younger than the company initially anticipated, said Webster Lewin, mobile marketing strategist at VML, Burger King’s interactive agency of record and the lead agency for mobile initiatives.
And from a recent Hispanic promotion the chain discovered that more responses came from T-Mobile customers, who are thought to be more price sensitive, than from Sprint and Cingular customers, even though Burger King has more Sprint and Cingular subscribers in its customer base.
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