Truly successful social network marketing programs are tough to come by. We have several under belt here at FM and you can read about our philosophy on this here, here and here. From stand-alone branded apps, to integrated brand messaging within existing apps, everyone is trying to crack this nut.
So kudos to Burger King and Crispin Porter + Bogusky for coming up with a very innovative approach. They just launched the Whopper Sacrifice application on Facebook. Here’s coverage at AdWeek. The application allows you to pick up free BK food for every 10 ‘friends’ you sacrifice from your Facebook friends list.
This is one of the more interesting ideas we’ve seen from a stand-alone branded application. If you’re familiar with FM, you know we judge these things by three criteria: Is it transparent? Yes. Is it authentic? Yes. Does it add value to the user’s experience? Absolutely.
The one question I have is how many people will be willing to whittle down their friends list for a free burger. Many (wrongly) consider it a badge of honor to have thousands of friends even when that list is full of strangers. I’d be very interested in a complete case study when this one wraps up.