London International Awards
2022 Winners and Finalists
Silver
Social Media & Influencers
Copywriting
Entrant: | VMLY&R, Kansas City |
Brand: | Wendy's |
Title: | "National Roast Day" |
Name of Social Influencer: | Wendy |
Corporate Name of Client (if applicable): | Wendy's |
Chief Marketing Officer: | Carl Loredo |
Client VP, Media & Social: | Jimmy Bennett |
Client Director, Strategic Brand Communications: | Frank Vamos |
Client Social Media Specialist: | Kristin Tormey |
Media Company: | Spark Foundry, New York |
Senior VP, Group Director, Spark Foundry: | Ryan Kefer |
Director Content, Spark Foundry: | Jennifer Rodriguez |
Associate Director Content, Spark Foundry: | Victor Thai |
Associate Director Search & Social, Spark Foundry: | Cris Stephan |
PR Company: | Ketchum, Chicago |
Senior Vice President, Ketchum: | Emily Kooistra |
Managing Account Supervisor, Ketchum: | Kelsey McGovern |
Account Supervisor, Ketchum: | Paulina Chronis |
Agency: | VMLY&R, Kansas City |
Global Chief Creative Officer: | Debbi Vandeven |
Chief Creative Officer, NA: | John Godsey |
Chief Creative Officer: | Noel Cottrell |
Executive Creative Director: | McKay Hathaway |
Creative Directors: | Matt Keck/Conor Clarke/Sarah Weigl |
Associate Creative Directors: | Ben Conaghan/Katie Mylrea/Che Suryakumar/Meredith Young |
Senior Copywriter: | Brian Bockelman |
Copywriter: | Emily Friedman |
Associate Copywriter: | Katy Lowe |
Senior Art Director: | Ann Putney |
Agency Motion Designer: | Michael Armstrong |
Agency Editor: | Matias Canelson |
Agency Director of Post Production, NA: | Casey Steele |
Agency Post Producer: | Grace Rehorn |
Agency Group Director Integrated Production: | Steve Stone |
Agency Associate Connections Director, Social: | Samantha Schuster |
Agency Senior Connections Manager: | Emmy Hanlon |
Agency Associate Connections Manager: | Lawrence Brown |
Agency Connections Supervisor, Social: | Jessica Wiggins Unverferth |
Agency Account Executive: | Kelly Gartenmayer |
Agency Chief Client Officer, NA: | Jennifer McDonald |
Agency Managing Director Client Engagement: | Jason Bass |
Agency Senior Campaign Program Manager: | Laura Picicci Meyer |
Agency Managing Director Strategy & Insights: | Jeremy Cline |
Agency Manager, Innovation & Data: | Bret Smith |
Agency Senior Analyst, Innovation & Data: | Carolina Mach |
Agency Associate Director Client Engagement: | Colin Belmont |
Agency Associate Account Manager: | Adam Scherzer |
Description:
Wendy’s was the newcomer fast-food challenger with charm. However, 50 years later, most Americans viewed it the same way they saw other traditional fast-food brands. How might we make America fall in love with Wendy’s again?
To get love, you must give love. There are songs and self-help books about it. We all crave appreciation and affirmation.
When Americans want to show love and appreciation, we create holidays. From traditional, like Valentine’s Day, to less traditional, like Thank a Mail Carrier Day, to even the most informal, like a friendaversary, holidays are how we show we care. So creating a holiday to show America love was the perfect idea.
But what if we showed our love differently by roasting America? Almost paradoxically, we roast the ones we love. It’s a sign of closeness and endearment. And people love Wendy’s roasts.
If Valentine’s Day is devoted to momentous displays of love and affection, then National Roast Day is Wendy’s way of showing love and affection: by roasting anyone who asks.
After we announced our completely made-up floating holiday, global brands, regular people, bands, professional sports teams, celebrities, nobodies, celebrity nobodies (aka influencers), and even more brands all lined up to be roasted.
They knowingly asked for a takedown and then proudly shared it as a point of pride. We handed out roasts to anyone who asked for them, sending a roast every 86 seconds — and still didn’t get to all of our requests.
Achievement against business targets: Our made-up holiday, #NationalRoastDay, was so talked about that it organically became a trending topic on Twitter and increased mentions of Wendy’s by 1,224%.
We generated more than 30 million organic Twitter impressions and more than 130 million earned media impressions in a matter of hours. Some of the world’s biggest brands included our made-up holiday on their marketing calendars. It even spread to other platforms, such as TikTok, driving more than 10.5 million views of #NationalRoastDay.