The marketer making burgers brilliant: Katie Evans, Burger King CMO

Burger King is once again a flaming success in the UK as it saw last year’s operating profits increase significantly to £13.4 million, up from a loss of £20.7 million the year before. Part of that growth included the opening of 18 new stores alongside 10 refits. The chain has also been focused on its reviewing its pricing during the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, helping to reignite its sales.

The quick service restaurant (QSR) sector so competitive that it's no easy feat to turn around the fortunes of a brand when things go a little south. But Burger King is doing just that as it fights to regain its crown as a leading dining-out destination after recent years of turnaround. That uptick in fortunes has been essential, and one that the country’s chief marketing officer Katie Evans has been heavily involved with, alongside the support of creative agency BBH London.

And once again, the brand is using creative ideas to drive its competitiveness following it's unveiling of the latest campaign ‘Bundle of Joy’ - arguably its boldest yet.

‘Bundle of Joy’ uses research led by Mumsnet which found that many mums believe their first post-birth meal conjured some of the most “unforgettable feelings” - with 39 per cent of the over 2000 mums asked saying their first post-birth meal felt like the “ultimate version” of a meal.

This campaign uses real images of mums post-birth tucking into a Burger King meal. The latest initiative, Evans believes, is one that underlines the joy that its food can deliver, even in the most difficult of moments. “We know a thing or two about the blissful state of ultimate food satisfaction,” she claims.

It accompanies the brand’s prior work on ‘Foodfillment’ which began to showcase Burger King as the optimal destination for the ultimate feelings of total food satisfaction.

It’s an incredibly brave move from the brand - and one that, according to advertising analysts System1, proved to score highly in terms of brand recognition; 97 per cent of viewers recognised the ad was Burger King, putting it in the top 5 per cent of OOH campaigns for brand recognition. 

“It will remind people of the brand, it’s linked to the category, and it gets a lot of engagement (which will drive earned reach and short-term effects but it will only build long-term equity for a segment of the public,” says Andrew Tindall, senior vice president at System1. 

Tindall also addressed the negative response from some audiences towards the campaign, which he said was people rejecting the brand’s tone of voice when focusing on births. “This could exactly be the objective of the campaign. Using this data - I think it’s a winner. It’s anything but dull.”

Evans’ Career Spanning Quick Cuisine

Evans is no stranger to working in positions of leadership - nor the art of marketing food; before joining Burger King in 2018, she spent more than four years with Gourmet Burger Kitchen as its marketing director, before also working as head of marketing at Krispy Kreme and brand manager at Heinz. 

Earlier this year, Evans told The Drum that Burger King’s marketing campaigns were forged in “creative bravery” with creative ideas that needed to “punch above their weight” to break through with audiences.

Across her period at Burger King, she has played her part in a list of campaigns that have garnered the brand a range of accolades; so much so that in 2023 Burger King was ranked the eighth most creative brand in The Drum’s World Creative Rankings. 

Just last year she oversaw the ad campaign ‘We give up’, again working with BBH London, using sarcasm-rich comedy to highlight that despite a focus in promoting their Whopper burger throughout time taking pole position, their Chicken Royale is just as popular amongst customers.  

In 2019, a year into the job, Evans boldly led the way for sustainability in removing plastic toys from Burger King’s iconic King Junior children’s meals in a campaign labelled ‘Meltdown’. In what she described as a “positive step forwards”, Burger King encouraged customers to throw away their plastic toys in specialised amnesty bins placed across UK stores to save an estimated 320 tonnes of single-use plastic. 

“As a business we knew we needed to make a positive step forward by addressing the plastic toys that have historically given away in our King Junior Meals,” Evans explained at the time of launch. “So initially the ambition was to come up with an alternative sustainable solution to these toys in the UK.” 

The name, Evans said, was an “engaging representation” of what they were aiming to achieve, all the while aware of potential backlash removing the well-loved toys would have. 

Burger King’s then global chief marketing officer, Fernando Machado, said the move from the UK franchise was “leading the way” in the restaurant’s “wider commitment on reducing plastics.”

In 2023 the fast food chain partnered with a distant cousin in Doritos, creating Flame Grilled Whopper flavour Doritos labelled the “triangle Whopper”, and then a month later going on to collaborate again - this time launching Chilli Heatwave Chicken Fries across UK stores. 

Although initially the launch, on April 1, seemed a fool’s joke, Evans at the time confirmed the collaboration between the two brands: “We’re excited for fans to try it, so they can now enjoy a Whopper wherever and wherever they want.”

From developing a campaign partnership with Doritos to changing the narrative around Burger King’s Chicken Royale, as a marketer, Evans has spearheaded much of the brand’s current identity to UK audiences - and is certainly no stranger to pulling off a successful marketing operation. 

And after working with creative agency BBH London for over six years, the creative pairing is continues to push boundaries. Karen Martin, London CEO for BBH, believes much of Burger King’s successes have come from Evans never fearing a challenge. 

“What makes Katie truly excellent is the way she combines creative and strategic nouse with not being afraid to listen to her gut, and to buy ideas that provoke and challenge.

“She fights tirelessly for the work, whilst ensuring she and the entire team have fun every step of the way.”

Evans is leading the Burger King brand into a new era and is doing so confident of success.