Challenge

Perceived as an old white brand in a young country with an exploding young black middle class, Wimpy needed to connect with young black middle class South Africans

According to the literal middle-class definition by the National Income Dynamics Study, 83% of South Africa's middle-class are black. As a mass market brand; Wimpy had to grow resonance with the black middle-class to grow market share.

The Festive season is aggressively competitive when it comes to fast food and casual dining options. Wimpy needed to drive salience with South Africans (particularly emerging market consumers) during the festive season with the promotional "double double" burger.

Solution

The brand decided to drive salience with South Africans over the festive period by mentally connecting the brand to the summer reality, instead of the summer 'dream'.  To separate the Wimpy brand from the rest of the typical summer promotional noise, we cut the clutter by rather showcasing that when summer time means family ALL of the time, typically at gran's house, sometimes you just need a summer time OUT… at Wimpy.   Our TVC unpacked those true, but actually funny, moments that all families go through when they share a space. Whether that's the lack of personal space, the never-ending dishes that need to be washed, someone asking why you're still not married yet, and even differing opinions on when to wake up.  Ultimately the brand was the antidote to the 'not so nice' elements of gran's house by encouraging consumers to take a time out that they would probably so desperately need over the festive season at a Wimpy – with the Double Double Cheese Burger meal providing them with family sit-down value at just R59.90.

Results

Forecasts for promotional meals are benchmarked against the best performance of similar promotions in the past. The targets are strenuous - reaching them is celebrated, exceeding them is unheard of. Forecasts for the Double Double cheese promotion in 2018 were benchmarked at an average of 155 units per region per week. On average, the results came in at a mind-blowing 314 units sold per region per week, more than double the initial average forecast. This means the meals performed nearly 68% above target. KwaZulu Natal, a popular holiday destination revealed a weekly average of 365 units being sold per week; with week 5 of the promo hitting a record 504 units sold per week in KZN. This phenomenal results proved that Wimpy had salience and top of mind awareness over this summer holiday period. No other campaign over the last decade has performed this well, making this the most successful campaign of the decade. The campaign only launched in September of 2018, so brand tracking data and empirical data is not yet available. Anecdotally however, franchises and the client can attest to the fact that the campaign pulled in an unprecedented number of emerging market consumers that far exceed their expectations