NEW! 'Creative Legends' Podcast: Katie Evans, Marketing Director, Burger King

‘Creative Legends’

We have launched a new podcast series called 'Creative Legends', hosted by good friend of Creative Moment, Graham Goodkind.

Graham will talk to a legend in the creative industry, someone who has done something that is creatively legendary or a creative legend in their own right.

The second guest in the series is Katie Evans, marketing director at Burger King UK.

Katie talks us through her early career at Dunnhumby, Heinz, Krispy Creme and Gourmet Burger Kitchen before joining Burger King in 2018.

Her mission is to get people talking about the Whopper again while having a bit of fun with the competition along the way!

Here's a summary of what Katie and Graham discuss:

[00:02:07] Katie talks us through her early career at Dunnhumby, Heinz, Krispy Creme and Gourmet Burger Kitchen before joining Burger King.

[00:04:33] Why her time at Krispy Kreme was such an important time in Katie's career, working with a small creative budget.

[00:05:37] How Katie and the rest of the team reinvigorated the Gourmet Burger Kitchen brand.

[00:06:50] How it came about that Katie joined her former Gourmet Burger Kitchen CEO Alistair Murdoch at Burger King.

[00:07:46] Why working for an iconic global brand such as Burger King was too tempting for Katie to turn down!

[00:08:04] Why Katie enjoys the type of work involved in a brand turnaround.

[00:08:38] How the ownership of Burger King in the UK has changed.

[00:09:57] Why it's Katie's mission to revive a slightly fading but iconic brand in the UK and get people talking about the Whopper again.

[00:10:16] Katie talks us through some of her favourite creative Burger King activations in the past 12 months.

[00:10:35] How the Cannes winning Whopper detour campaign came about.

[00:12:16] How the Burger King Detour campaign geo-fenced all 14,000 McDonald's in the US and offered customers a Whopper for one cent if they ordered on the app within 600 feet of that McDonald's.

[00:12:40] How within 48 hours Burger King's app went from 68 then in the app store to number one across all categories.

[00:13:03] How this is a brilliant example of turning what could be a fairly functional digital product launch into something engaging from a consumer perspective and having a little bit of fun with the competition.

[00:14:25] Katie talks us through BK's Project Meltdown promoting sustainability and reducing plastic consumption, including its plastic toys given away with kids meals.

[00:16:57] The idea behind meltdown - removing plastic toys completely from our kids meals and melting them down in typical Toy Story style to turn them into something for good.

[00:21:45] In its final creative campaign of 2019 Burger King revealed that in every advert in 2019 featuring a Whopper there had been a Big Mac hidden behind it.

[00:25:13] Westminster Whoppers: Burger King also got involved with politics last year, talking about Whoppers on the side of a bus.

[00:30:33] The story behind the "Google, home of the Whopper" campaign that triggered Google home devices to tell its owner what a Whopper was.

[00:34:20] How Katie is always nervous before a campaign kicks off.

[00:36:48] Katie talks us through one of Burger King's more controversial campaigns last year where it told "the people of Scotland that they are selling milkshake all weekend" during Nigel Farage's visit.

[00:39:50] Why does Burger King try and engage in conversational banter with McDonalds?

[00:41:20] Katie tells us how Burger King try to get the best, creatively, out of its agencies.

[00:41:53] Why Burger King tends to work for local agencies in the UK, rather than big global agencies.

[00:43:06] How Burger King briefs its different creative agencies.

[00:46:41] Is there a pressure within Burger King to use global ideas locally?