In March of 2009, Arby’s was on the verge of the biggest product launch in their history with a new sandwich called the Roastburger. In their battle against hamburgers, Arby’s decided that they could offer a superior, non-greasy alternative to the fast-food staple that maintained the core traits of what hamburger lovers craved.
The team created a viral video dubbed the “Mona Greasa”. With the help of artist Phil Hansen, a timelapse video was shot showing an artist (Phil) painting a large mural of the Mona Lisa with hamburgers and hamburger grease. A visually arresting, gross but engrossing demonstration that showed how greasy the competition really was – tagged only with a url: burgergreaseart.com. When the viewer was intrigued enough to go to burgergreaseart.com, they were greeted with a microsite promoting the “Never Greasy, Never Fried” Roastburger, an extended version of the video, a coupon for a free sandwich and a way to share the video with their friends.
The video was seeded across the web and generated over a thousand blog and website hits. Over 1,000,000 views on YouTube alone. The free sandwich coupon had to be removed from the microsite due to overwhelming interest and hits continue to roll in from over 700 sources and almost every country in the world. Adweek and AdAge made it the “ad of the day” and it was featured on AdAge’s creativity-online website. J.D. Power and Associates reported in an AdWeek article that Arby’s was #1 in Gen Y online chatter – attributing this viral work directly.
(From the portfolio of our Creative Director, Brandy Gill)