A New Recipe

Food is the main ingredient in current fast-food promotions.

Psssst: It’s the food.

Restaurant chains are putting their menus center stage with promotions that play to — and sometimes with — food.

Burger King continues its momentum this month with Shrek, hot on the heels of last month’s Choose the Ooze kids’ campaign, which let kids pick their fave flave: green ketchup, green dipping sauce (for chicken nuggets), or green frozen drinks.

“Licensed properties and toys can be compelling, but we want to innovate with food and ideas that we can own,” says director of youth and family marketing Brian Gies. “The biggest challenge in fast food is to get away from the ‘flavor of the month’ mentality. We can’t afford to be known for our last great promotion.”

BK’s target is four- to 10-year-olds, with the “sweet spot” at nine, says Gies. The Miami chain worked with H.J. Heinz and Coca-Cola to cook up exclusive Ooze goodies. (Both companies’ research shows that blue and green are kids’ favorite colors for funky food, Gies says.) Heinz’ Blastin’ Green EZ Squirt condiment (it’s not formally called ketchup) has been a monster hit since its launch last year. BK approached Heinz about bringing the brand to restaurants.

Foodservice packets came in Burger King Kids Meals and Big Kids Meals, with “standard red available for un-fun-loving adults,” Gies laughs. Ongoing brainstorming with Coke prompted green Minute Maid Cherry frozen drinks. The third treat, Gooey Green Apple Ooze, was a rebirth of the Slime Sauce distributed as part of a fall 1999 Nickelodeon tie-in. The promotion ends May 6. DraftWorldwide, Chicago, handles merchandising, with ads via Campbell Mithun, Minneapolis. Ooze is the ad agency’s first work since winning BK’s kids’ account early this year.

Ooze rolled out the green carpet for Shrek, which breaks May 7 with kids’ meal premiums and trading cards. Nine candy caddies, based on characters from the DreamWorks film, can hold Smarties (distributed separately) or other small treasures. A set of 23 trading cards play off the film’s fractured fairy tales, with Fairy Tale Freaks designed by BK. There’s one card in each kids’ meal during the five-week promo. Equity Marketing, Los Angeles, handles premiums; DraftWorldwide handles merchandising.

Toys and characters appeal to kids more than food-based promos “because their taste profiles don’t mature until a later age,” Gies explains. BK is mixing both in its promo calendar to maintain novelty.

“It’s definitely not an approach of ‘Insert toy here,’” Gies says. “We’ve changed our property selection process, looking at kids’ lifestyles rather than just at what properties are available. We’re trying to make sure there’s not such a lag with lifestyle trends” such as action sports and personal electronics.

Food-based promos also mean fewer toys. BK is expected to cut premium spending via Equity 30 percent to 40 percent this year. That will put a hit on Equity’s revenues, which the company projects to fall between $185 million and $215 million this year after reaching $232 million in 2001.

BK’s food focus started in March, with the adult-oriented Every Whopper is a Winner. That promo played up the fact that it had no game or sweepstakes — just a free-food-with-purchase offer: Buy a Whopper and get a free cheese and bacon topping, slice of Hershey’s pie, or frozen Coke. TV and in-store P-O-P supported via DraftWorldwide (its first work since being named promo AOR in January) and general-market agency McCann-Erickson, New York City.

Mighty at Mickey D’s

Meanwhile, McDonald’s is, er, beefing up its kids’ offerings with Mighty Kids Meals, launched March 30. The meals target eight- to 10-year-olds with bigger entrees (double burger or cheeseburger, or six McNuggets). Mighty Kids Meals get the same toys, fries, and drinks as Happy Meals. The menu addition launched with an April promo pegged to the Miramax film SPYKids that features nine toys, each with a “spy function” modeled from the movie.

Mighty Kids Meals come in “a more mature-looking” brown paper bag, which won’t change with each promo like Happy Meals bags do. Marketing Store Worldwide, Oak Brook, IL, handles Mighty Kids Meals, with ad support via Leo Burnett USA, Chicago.

McD tested a big-kids’ meal in Detroit in 1998, but this is its first national offering. “We understand that kids ages eight through 10 are going through both physical and psychological changes. They have growing appetites, and do not want to be identified as ‘little kids’ anymore,” says vp-marketing R.J. Milano.

Ironically, McD’s increased focus on food may mean fewer promos. A task force recommended the chain cut the number of games and premium offers as part of a five-year plan to double U.S. sales, according to a report in The Chicago Tribune. McD’s task force found that promotional messages more than doubled from 1997 to 1999, but a test store with fewer promo messages had higher sales, per the Tribune. Another recommendation: Cut the menu back to core items, with fewer sizes per item.

McD expanded its offerings and took food-based promos regional with its New Tastes Menu, which launched nationally in January. There are 40 menu items that franchisees add (four at a time) to cater to local tastes. The New Tastes Menu is a permanent addition to McD’s slate, but items change regularly as franchisees rotate goodies. McD will use New Tastes to showcase new national products as well as seasonal, regional, and value-priced items.

New Tastes gives franchisees more control over their menus, two years after a corporate restructuring gave regional franchisee groups more control over their own promotion calendars. The program could boost repeat traffic and give Corporate a smaller venue to test and launch new products. (Classics like Big Mac and Egg McMuffin started as franchisee experiments.) McDonald’s credits its “Made For You” cooking system with making New Tastes possible.

If food dictates promotion, it’s dictating the occasional store design as well. Witness McDonald’s Burger Invasion, a full-service restaurant which opened at Disney’s California Adventure Park in February. The burger-shaped outlet is McD’s first full-service unit in a Disney park (it operates a French fry stand in Walt Disney World), and is part of the duo’s 10-year marketing partnership. Burger Invasion opened with a House of Mouse Happy Meal promotion that used Mickey Mouse as a Happy Meal premium for the first time ever.

After all, it’s more fun to eat with a friend.

Recalls Hit Toddler Toys

Burger King and McDonald’s both got hit with product recalls in March.

BK and promo agency Alcone Marketing, Irvine, CA, recalled about 400,000 “Rattling, Paddling Riverboat” toddler toys distributed in Burger King Kids’ Meals. Metal pins with plastic caps that attach the paddle wheel to the riverboat toy can come out and pose a choking hazard. BK received 10 reports that the pin came out. One child was found with the pin in her mouth. No injuries were reported.

Just a week earlier, McDonald’s recalled 234,000 Scooter Bug Happy Meal toys made by Fisher-Price for kids under three that were distributed November 2000 through February 2001. The bug’s antenna can break off, posing a choking hazard to young children. McDonald’s received two reports of children choking and one report of a child gagging on the detached antenna.