Burger King found a new kind of customer for Halloween, people who say they share their home with a ghost. Fans sent in their scariest real stories, a medium went to check them out in person, and the households whose stories held up got free Whoppers delivered to the door.
The Stories Fans Sent In
The entry mechanic was as simple as it gets. Burger King asked people in Chile to send their best paranormal experiences as WhatsApp voice notes. The prize was free Whoppers, but only if the story turned out to be real.
Voice notes suited the subject. A ghost story works best told out loud, in the teller’s own voice, with the pauses and the nerves left in. Fans could record one in a minute from their phone, which kept the barrier to entry low.
Hundreds of audio messages came in.
The Medium Who Checked Them
Burger King did not judge the stories itself. It brought in Álvaro Santi, a recognised medium, to pick the 3 best ones.
Santi then visited each of the locations where the activity had been reported to check the cases for himself. At each house, he delivered free Whoppers to the people living with the ghosts.
The verification step is what turns a competition into a story. A brand saying it believes your ghost story is a joke. A medium turning up at your door to investigate it, with burgers, is content.
The Line That Tied It Together
The campaign closed on one line, “Because if you are never home alone, you don’t have to eat alone.”
It recasts the haunting as company. If something else is always in the house, then dinner is for 2, and Burger King delivers. The joke also brings the campaign back to the service it was selling, delivery to your home.
Burger King Keeps Coming Back to Ghosts
The paranormal has become a Halloween habit for Burger King around the world. In Spain in 2021, agency DAVID Madrid ran 3AM Apparitions, which made a different free meal appear in the Burger King app each day of Halloween week at 3am, the hour linked to spirits, for one hour only.
In the US in 2022, Burger King added a ghost detector to its app to promote the Ghost Pepper Whopper. Loyalty members who used the tool, which tracked electromagnetic activity, unlocked an offer on the new burger.
Chile’s version was one of the earliest and the most personal. It did not ask fans to imagine ghosts. It asked them to report their own.
The Team Behind It
Wolf BCPP in Santiago created the campaign, with executive creative director Gonzalo Baeza, creative director Nicolás Pérez, art director Tomás Castro and copywriter Luis Moreno.
Most Halloween promotions decorate a product. Burger King Chile found its audience by listening to people tell ghost stories, then sent a medium and a bag of Whoppers to the best ones.
Campaign Name: Paranormal Delivery
Agency Name: Wolf BCPP, Santiago
Brand Name: Burger King Chile
Location: Chile (Halloween, October 2018)
