Bouncing back from an infamous marketing fail by refusing to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
INCLUDED
Integrated Creative Campaign
Brand Positioning & Strategy
Buzz and Earned Media
Paid Media Campaign
It's bigger, genius
In the 1980s, A&W tried to compete with McSomebody’s Quarter Pounder by offering a beefier 1/3 lb. burger at the same price. Americans, sadly, didn’t see the value. Since 4 is bigger than 3, math-challenged consumers assumed the 1/4 lb. option was bigger, and the whole experiment went down in history as a huge marketing fail that the internet was still buzzing about nearly 40 years later.
Rather than run from the bad publicity and brutal memes, we embraced the mistake and flipped the equation in our favor with an absurd burger rebrand that refused to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
Rather than run from the bad publicity and brutal memes, we embraced the mistake and flipped the equation in our favor with an absurd burger rebrand that refused to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
“Rather than run from the bad publicity and brutal memes, we embraced the mistake and flipped the equation in our favor.”
After multiplying the cotangent by the digit’s prime numeral, our calculations concluded that the stunt earned some seriously impressive results.
Eureka!
3.5B
earned media readership
10%
increase in A&W’s sales
WE’VE GOT THE WORLD TALKING...
“A&W Forgives Your Lousy Math Skills, Brings Back Burger Bigger Than a Quarter Pounder”
“Our Math Skills Are Keeping Us From Bigger, Juicier Burgers”
“A&W's 1/3rd Pound Burger Failed, So It's Trying a 3/9th Pound Burger Instead”
“After a Major Marketing Fail, This Fast-Food Chain Is Finally Launching a New Burger”
