Creativity Is King

Burger King is honoured as Cannes Lions’ Creative Marketer of the Year thanks to brand communications that are pioneering yet inclusive. John Tylee speaks to its two top marketers about this approach.

- John Tylee

When it comes to gobbling up creative awards, Burger King has an appetite every bit as voracious as Scott from Michigan, who claimed a world record by scoffing one of the fast-food chain’s signature Whopper sandwiches in an indigestion-inducing 36 seconds.

But while it seems fair to ask Scott about the point of such ostentatious gluttony, nobody would question Burger King’s insatiable awards hunger, which was marked at this year’s Cannes Lions when the company was anointed Creative Marketer of the Year.

Ever since tasting success with its first Lion – a silver – in 1969, Burger King has packed away 75 more, including two Grands Prix. Add to these the eight D&AD Pencils collected last year and it underlines the fact that creativity has been the one constant theme in the company’s story.

Burger King, though, is eager to lay to rest any suggestion that it is an “awards junkie”, arguing that there’s a direct correlation between creative innovation and commercial success.

Moreover, Fernando Machado, Burger King’s head of brand marketing, insists creativity has been part of the company’s DNA ever since James McLamore and David Edgerton launched their operation in 1954 offering reasonably priced broiled burgers for baby-boom families.