TV Advertising: First Impression

Fatburger's first TV spot shows off its new look and helps the chain say "goodbye" to its QSR days.

By Margaret Littman, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 6/1/2007

You can’t say that Fatburger is afraid of change. In the last nine months, the 55-year-old concept has shed its well-known and well-loved fast-food persona. As it morphs from a QSR to a fast-casual concept, Fatburger has embraced new tools and techniques for selling its new self. In April the chain began airing its first television ads and shelled out serious marketing dollars for food photography for the first time in company history.

"We were delivering fast casual, delivering fresh food to the table," says Vice President of Marketing Elaine Patel. "Our shakes are made with handmade ice cream. We already had all these cues; we decided, ‘Let’s go all the way.’"

"All the way" meant a new store design for new units (existing stores will be retrofitted over the next several years), a new color palette, menu design and menu items.

Fatburger toned down the colors in the restaurants and collateral to subtler shades of red and gold. It replaced the chain’s iconic line drawings with high-quality food photography. The team shot more than 30 menu items in different contexts, resulting in a library of 60 photos that can be used in future marketing efforts.

"The yellow, red and black colors that they used were almost primary colors. They were very QSR," says Bil O’Neill, creative director at honestmechanics, the Costa Mesa, Calif.-based ad firm that became Fatburger’s agency of record four years ago.

This is potentially scary stuff for franchisees, particularly when accompanied by changes to the advertising-fund structure. Stores outside of Los Angeles saw an increase from 0.4 percent to 2 percent of sales. In 2006, the chain spent $165,000 for media placement in Los Angeles. In 2007, it will spend $155,000 on production of TV and radio spots and $875,000 on media placement. But Patel says, "[Franchisees] requested TV spots, food photography, and they wanted out of QSR. They have been waiting for this for years."

Fat Is Phat

One of the challenges of rebranding Fatburger was the name. While it had devoted fans and claims to sell one of the leanest burgers in the business, those who were new to the concept didn’t know that the name referred to the size of the sandwich, not the fat content.

"The name Fatburger leads you to think of something that pushes you away before you have the opportunity to try it," says O’Neill. "This was one of the most challenging assignments our agency has ever had."

Honestmechanics strove to create a campaign that was "100 percent about the burger," O’Neill says. The commercial features real Fatburger customers as well as actors reciting lines provided by customers in the course of research. To get that customer response, Fatburger held eating contests and other events to bring people to the restaurants and comment on their meals.

The response was better than Patel expected. In one case, a customer was participating in the Triple King challenge, in which he ate a certain number of the three-patty burgers. When the creative team started asking him questions, he had a worried look on his face—he was concerned that his burger was getting cold. Other customers talked about why they felt so strongly about Fatburger and suggested alternative names for the chain. The new tagline for the campaign underscores all those opinions: "Big. Juicy. Tasty. Now, that’s a Fatburger."

"For all the changes," Patel says, "we stayed true to our core product."

Meaty Messaging

Fatburger launched the TV commercial after Easter. The thinking was that those who had been observing Lent would have refrained from eating beef for 40 days and would be ready to sink their teeth into a juicy burger. The rebranding launch was teamed with limited-time offers: the Saucy Burger and Maui Banana Shake.

For the initial launch, the team created just one 30-second TV spot and a handful of radio ads. The spot is running in Los Angeles and Las Vegas on cable networks such as ESPN and MTV to attract the chain’s 22- to 44-year-old male target audience.

Honestmechanics also created a director’s cut, a compilation of outtakes, that it will post on Web sites such as MySpace and YouTube. "During a taping you always get really fun and crazy outtakes, especially when you tell [people] to just say anything that comes to mind," O’Neill says. Outtakes include one customer describing Fatburger as a "disco in your mouth." Another describes Fatburger as what a burger would be like if "Godzilla and King Kong were to make a burger."

The online presence will help Fatburger as it moves into three new markets in 2007: Michigan, Washington, D.C., and Hawaii. A total of 200 franchise agreements have been signed for the next few years.

Sales figures reflecting any impact of the new campaign have not yet been calculated, but the company estimates 2007 sales will increase 10 percent over 2006. Adds O’Neill: "The domino effect [of the ads and the online outtakes] will only help the brand."

“Big. Juicy. Tasty. Now, that’s a Fatburger.” Length: 30 seconds
1. Voice-over: It has come to our attention that some people just cannot get past the name Fatburger. We’ve asked several of our fans what they might call us instead.	2. Woman: It’s my Fantasy Burger.
3. Man 1: It’s a Bring It On Burger.	4. Man 2: It’s a Blow Your Mind Burger
5. Voice-over: [Laugh] Our burgers are big, juicy and cooked right in front of you. In fact, we use fresh, 100 percent pure lean beef.	6. Don’t let the name scare you.
7. Try our new Saucy Burger or Maui Banana Shake. Now for a limited time.	8. Man 3: It’s burgerlicious, son.