Fernando Machado BK
On the first day of Advertising Week Latam in Mexico City, Burger King CMO Fernando Machado gave a talk dubbed Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid. But Do It, in which he revealed the five marketing keys to the brand’s success. “Creativity can be the differentiating factor for a company. The problem of being generic in fast food is that it’s a very competitive category and Burger King is neither the biggest nor the one that invests the most. So the solution is that what we do must stand out. What multiplies our dollars is having people see it and say that only Burger King could do something like that,” he said. The first key is understanding the brand. “We studied consumer anthropology to understand what people like about Burger King but we never tried to change it into something it’s not,” Machado said. “What’s important in our communications is the fun factor.” The second key is providing a good brief. “It isn´t easy to write a short brief,” Machado said. “The thing is that when you include a lot of things, the campaign won´t communicate anything. You must identify the main idea and stick to it. Today our briefs are one phrase long.” Key number three is letting ideas grow. “It has taken us years to develop ideas,” he said. “It’s easy to kill off ideas because they look too expensive, too complicated, or, unfortunately, if they’re too innovative. You must trust uncertainty. It´s all in the crafting of an idea and believing in it. The biggest risk is not taking any risks. If there is no uncertainty, it´s not going to be a good idea.” The last key is being a team: “Brand and agency must work as a team because it’s always harder fighting the system to defend an innovative idea if you are alone.”
