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Category
Social Post / Real-time Response
Annual ID
OS22_SM059M
About the Work
With just four words, Wendy's turned the biggest social network's biggest announcement into a headline for Wendy’s core product: MEAT.
Wendy’s, the No. 2 hamburger fast food restaurant in America, is iconic for its brand voice, from “Where’s the beef?” on television in the 1980s to Twitter roasts of its competition today. While primarily focused on our core differentiator of fresh, never frozen beef and roasting the competition's use of the inferior frozen beef, Wendy’s social media takes the brand to places that no other brand could. We’ve developed a cult following, established #NationalRoastDay as a national holiday and transformed Wendy’s into material for pop culture. We use social media to vault to the top of consumers’ minds in more unique and memorable ways than our competition, which matters when mealtime decisions are impulse decisions and the top-of-mind brand is the one that gets the visit.
So when Facebook — the largest social media company in the world, home to more than 2.89 billion users — announced that they were changing their company name from Facebook to Meta, there were billions of opinions.
But opinions don’t become newsworthy until an expert or authority weighs in. And as the resident authority on opinions via social media roasting, Wendy’s found a way in on the announcement.
Tweeting just four words, Wendy's turned the biggest social network's biggest announcement into a headline for Wendy’s core product: MEAT.
“changing name to meat.”
Mentions of Wendy’s across social media increased by more than 625% as our tweet generated more than 17 million organic Twitter impressions. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey even shared it. Media shared it and generated 118 million earned media impressions. However the truest form of validation came when Mark Zuckerberg himself declared that Wendy’s reaction to the name change was the best reaction.
Wendy’s, the No. 2 hamburger fast food restaurant in America, is iconic for its brand voice, from “Where’s the beef?” on television in the 1980s to Twitter roasts of its competition today. While primarily focused on our core differentiator of fresh, never frozen beef and roasting the competition's use of the inferior frozen beef, Wendy’s social media takes the brand to places that no other brand could. We’ve developed a cult following, established #NationalRoastDay as a national holiday and transformed Wendy’s into material for pop culture. We use social media to vault to the top of consumers’ minds in more unique and memorable ways than our competition, which matters when mealtime decisions are impulse decisions and the top-of-mind brand is the one that gets the visit.
So when Facebook — the largest social media company in the world, home to more than 2.89 billion users — announced that they were changing their company name from Facebook to Meta, there were billions of opinions.
But opinions don’t become newsworthy until an expert or authority weighs in. And as the resident authority on opinions via social media roasting, Wendy’s found a way in on the announcement.
Tweeting just four words, Wendy's turned the biggest social network's biggest announcement into a headline for Wendy’s core product: MEAT.
“changing name to meat.”
Mentions of Wendy’s across social media increased by more than 625% as our tweet generated more than 17 million organic Twitter impressions. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey even shared it. Media shared it and generated 118 million earned media impressions. However the truest form of validation came when Mark Zuckerberg himself declared that Wendy’s reaction to the name change was the best reaction.
2022 Awards
Total Points: 3
Merit
Credits
Agency
VMLY&R / Kansas City
PR / Marketing Agency
Ketchum / Chicago
Client / Brand
Wendy's / Dublin
Copywriter
Emily Friedman
Chief Creative Officer
Noel Cottrell
Chief Marketing Officer
Carl Loredo
Creative Director
Conor Clarke
Eamon Conway
Matt Keck
Ryan Barkhuizen
Executive Creative Director
McKay Hathaway
Global Chief Creative Officer
Debbi Vandeven
Associate Director, Client Engagement
Colin Belmont
Chief Client Officer, North America
Jennifer McDonald
Chief Creative Officer, North America
John Godsey
Connections Manager
Lawrence Brown
Connections Supervisor, Social
Jessica Wiggins Unverferth
Director, Strategic Brand Communications
Frank Vamos
Manager, Innovation & Data
Jeremy Cline
Manager, Social Media & Gaming
Kristin Tormey
Managing Director, Client Engagement
Kelly Gartenmayer
Managing Director, Strategy & Insights
Bret Smith
Senior Campaign Program Manager
Laura Picicci Meyer
Senior Connections Manager
Emmy Hanlon
Vice President, Media & Social
Jimmy Bennett
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