27 May 10

Trade your ‘likes’ for a burger

by Stuart MacDougall, Digital Media Assistant

Brands are always looking for new innovative ways to sell their products; many have turned to the internet and in particular social media to engage consumers and boost sales. A great example of this is the Norwegian arm of Burger King who have come up with an original format to engage users.

Through Facebook the company makes an offer to its audience: Ten ‘likes’ of the Burger King page in exchange for a free burger, simple. This inventive use of its Facebook page will no doubt increase interaction and fans of the brand but also provide a nice PR story.

Everyone is a winner, the user has a free burger and the brand has another fan – however, there is no such thing as a free lunch! According to Virtue, social media fans are valued at around $3.60 each. Simple calculations show that if a brand can engage a fan base of 1 million people, this is worth around $3.6 million in traditional media advertising over a year. With the ‘free’ burger worth $2.90 it seems as if Burger King are getting a better deal than you are.

So remember not to undervalue your next ‘like’, there are a lot of brands that want it.