Whataburger is a Texas institution with over 1,000 restaurants and a 75-year history serving endlessly customizable, fresh, never-frozen, hamburgers. Industry: QSR
Whataburger
Industry
Tell ‘Em Lainey Sent Ya
Services Provided
- Cross-Channel Media Planning and Activation
- Cultural Event Integration
- Local Broadcast Buying & Added Value Generation
- Social Content Amplification
- Performance Measurement and Optimization
01 Challenges
DRIVING HOLIDAY GROWTH WITH A FULL-FUNNEL MEDIA STRATEGY
As Whataburger expands beyond Texas, they face tremendous competition from both well-funded National chains and entrenched regional chains. Whataburger needed to break through the clutter to not only make people aware of the new market entrant and actually get
02Approach
Whataburger partnered with country music star Lainey Wilson to drive awareness of the brand through a familiar face who is revered in the new markets and who has a genuine love of Whataburger. To differentiate versus competition, the message focused on the breakfast daypart with Whataburger’s Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit, and culminating in a giveaway where everyone could receive a free HBCB from 6-11A one day.
What we did
- Of course, Lainey was the centerpiece across channels, but as a musician, Radio was a key opportunity to feature her in her native environment.
- When the promotion was first conceived, Empower leadership started top-to-top conversations with some of the largest radio networks within the Whataburger footprint – owners of hundreds of stations.
- Within one network, we secured multiple DJ banter mentions on both the AFC and NFC Championship games on 125 stations across Whataburger’s full footprint.
- On a separate network, we secured 91 DJ reads across nearly 20 of our markets.
- We were even able to get on to stations that weren’t part of our buy – significantly extending reach – because the networks worked with us to identify the DJs who had the strongest love for Whataburger and who would provide the most authentic endorsements regardless of whether we had a buy with them.