How McDonald's CEO's viral burger video turned memes into money
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A video of McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski awkwardly eating a burger went viral and united the internet for a few days.
- It also led to an increase in sales.
Why it matters: Many aim to go viral, few know how to manage it once they do, and even fewer see it drive revenue.
Catch up quick: Over a month ago, Kempczinski posted a video of himself on LinkedIn taste testing a new menu item, the Big Arch burger. The CEO, who has been actively posting on LinkedIn for years, saw an average level of engagement on the post, and it lived there safely in the working professionals version of social media.
- But the clip took off after creators on X and TikTok started to mock Kempczinski for his overly corporate presentation and stiffness.
- In the video, Kempczinski takes a small bite of the burger — which he refers to as a "product" — against the backdrop of his office.
This prompted rival fast-food execs from Burger King and Wendy's, along with general social media users, to recreate the video with their own taste tests.
- McDonald's marquee brand accounts also got in on the joke by posting a photo of the burger with the caption "take a bite of our new product."
- It was then widely meme-ified and used to poke fun at senior executives who seemingly don't use their own company's products.
Yes, but: The buzz and awareness created material value for the company.
- According to a McDonald's spokeswoman, early sales are beating expectations following the viral video.
Between the lines: Kempczinski has been building up his social media chops in recent years, with his Instagram presence growing tenfold and LinkedIn following doubling since 2023.
- Kempczinski has 7x more total followers than the next industry CEO competitor, Starbucks' Brian Niccol, according to the company.
- Plus, his followers have grown 30% since the Big Arch taste testing video.
By the numbers: Not only did the video drive awareness for Kempczinski's personal brand, it also created a halo effect for McDonald's and its competitors.
On Sunday, McDonald's saw 47,900 total mentions and a reach of 5.8 billion across all platforms, making it the single-highest conversation day for any campaign — and by campaign standards, it was a fairly low lift.
- The video has been mentioned over 50,000 times on X since it was initially released, according to PeakMetrics data shared with Axios.
Zoom in: Fast-food competitors successfully news-jacked the moment by quickly posting reply videos featuring their CEOs eating burgers.
- As such, Burger King was featured in 68% of the McDonald's burger video conversation online, while Wendy's was featured in 18%, per PeakMetrics.
- By entering the burger video wars, Burger King and Wendy's also shifted the tone of the chatter online from humor and mocking to competitive comparisons.
What they're saying: "Virality is a product of putting a lot of shots on goal. Kempczinski has been showing up day after day, week after week, for years on social media," said Sara Wilson, founder of digital strategy consultancy SW projects.
- "[McDonald's] has a knack for creating incredibly thoughtful and viral cultural moments again and again. So this wasn't a one-off for McDonald's," she added.
- "They're pretty good at this, even though the reach of this one —I would be willing to put money on — was not something they could have predicted."
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