The King’s Challenge | BURGER KING x CLIO AWARDS
March 21, 2019 - by Kyle O’Brien
First Published On: The Drum
To help create the ultimate April Fools’ Day prank, the Clio Awards has partnered with noted prank brand Burger King to challenge students to come up with the best idea, as part of the 60th annual Clio Awards competition.
Burger King is taking over the Student Integrated Campaign category to find the most creative integrated campaign entry, which will earn a coveted Gold Clio statue. Additionally, Burger King will fly the creator of the award-winning submission to Miami to work as an ‘Honorary Creative Director’ alongside the creative teams that will bring to life Burger King’s next great April Fools’ Day prank.
The challenge is inspired by Burger King’s longstanding tradition of pranking consumers with outlandish product ‘launches’ timed to the day. The brand has had tremendous success with engaging customers around unimaginable innovations to America’s favorite burger, such as The Chocolate Whopper, or the Left-Handed Whopper, ‘redesigned’ with all condiments rotated 180-degrees, so it could be better enjoyed by left-handed guests, and Whopper-flavored toothpaste.
“April Fools’ has become a major date for Burger King and our campaigns have generated massive engagement with a younger, and often harder to reach, audience,” said Fernando Machado, Burger King global chief marketing officer. “We thought this would be a great way to challenge up-and-coming creatives to show us how they would cut through the noise and hijack popular culture with the ultimate prank.”
Entries will consist of a combination of audio, branded entertainment, branded content, design, digital/mobile, direct, experiential/events, film, innovation, out-of-home, partnerships and collaborations, print, public relations or social media elements. In addition to the winning work, a shortlist of submissions will be recognized for outstanding achievement within an editorial piece on Muse by Clio.
“At Clio, we’ve been awarding the creativity that pushes boundaries and permeates pop culture for sixty years,” said Nicole Purcell, Clio president. “We’re so excited to be partnering with an iconic brand like Burger King to give students the opportunity to surprise and delight audiences with the next great April Fools’ Day prank and work collaboratively with some of the industry’s most creative leaders.”
Entries are now open for eligible students, with a submissions deadline of 28 June.