Burger King's Fernando Machado On Why The Biggest Risk Today Is Not Taking Any Risk At All

Today, being successful at stewarding a winning brand is contingent on finding the right balance between many things: creativity and technology, analog and digital, things focused on the individual and things that invite community, just to name a few. As the age of the individual continues to unfold, the need for marketers to take calculated risks in order to stand out in a hyper-competitive marketplace has never been more evident.

For my latest Ask the CMO column, a series dedicated to going behind the scenes with some of the world’s top marketers, I had the privilege of sitting down with Fernando Machado, Global CMO of Burger King and inarguably one of the most creative and innovative marketers of recent times. Fernando has won a ton of industry awards, including many Cannes Lions and Adweek’s Grand Brand Genius distinction. We had the opportunity to talk about everything ranging from his ability to consistently deliver disruptive creative, to keeping Burger King moving at the speed of culture with the nimbleness of a startup. Following is a recap of our conversation:

Billee Howard: You are inarguably one of the most successful marketers of recent times. As there are so many different things that people talk about today related to challenges and trying to succeed in our current environment, can we start with what you think drives your success?

Fernando Machado: Sure. First, I think that I'm very lucky to represent a brand that's really iconic and loaded with heritage. We have a clear product differentiator, which always guided much of our work in the past. When I look at the heritage of Burger King, it's very rich material, from our flame broiled Whopper, to all of the amazing things done with Crispin Porter + Bogusky about ten years or so ago. I think that helps, as I have a lot of great raw material to play with.

I think that the second thing that helps me be successful is that I like to work surrounded by people who not only understand the brand, but who are also very ambitious when it comes to creativity. That’s certainly true of our agency partners and our local teams. I have been lucky to create an ecosystem of organizations and people that believe that creativity can lead you to deliver a better result – a better business result and a better brand result.

The third most important factor, which can be very liberating, is that I have the mindset that the biggest risk is not taking any risk at all. It is a phrase from Mark Zuckerberg, not from me, but it's so true. You know, to play in a product category, especially where we are not a market leader, if you just play by the book, it’s like trying to survive another day without any excitement or risk. Doing that is probably the fastest way to end up with a brand that's undifferentiated, and doesn't stand out, nor connect with the minds and the hearts of people.

So we always try to do things that are different, things that maybe another client wouldn't approve…and I think that has been the formula for our success in recent times.

Howard:  Many things that I've read about you are disruptive. I'd love to first talk about your recent AI ads that came out right around Advertising Week. Can you tell me what went into taking the risk of poking fun at technology yet walking the line so amazingly well?

Machado: We are always trying to do things that identify with what's going on in the zeitgeist right now. I mean, what are people talking about? Or, what are people going to be talking about? If you understand pop culture at an intimate level it is even better and even more interesting when you can sort of even pre-empt some of those things. We try to identify those things and then find a relevant, credible, fun way to insert our brand into the conversation.

We essentially identify what people are talking about or are going to be talking about, just like we did with our Google Home of the Whopper campaign. It was no different with the Agency of Robots campaign you mentioned. We tried to make a little bit of fun of artificial intelligence, deep learning, Blockchain and all those tech terms that everyone is talking about today. Not that we don't find it relevant, as we certainly do use programmatic media buying among other technologies. But while we do invest in many of those things, we felt that the industry was talking too much about that and very little about ideas. So, we said, hey, why not try to do a campaign where we poke fun at ourselves in a self-deprecating way. I mean, we don't even pronounce the brand name right in those ads, which is what made it funny and accessible to everyone. We wanted it to be light-hearted fun that made people engage, and that’s exactly what happened.

Howard: Another thing that I read about you is that you don't really use a traditional agency model. It seems you just work with people you respect and value and don't even really do pitches. What’s the thought process there?

Machado: I have always believed in working with people that I trust. I also enjoy working with people that I know have a high creative ambition and always have a collaborative spirit with the brand. When I came to Burger King, I picked the agency, at least for the U.S. and globally, that had the people that I trusted. David The Agency was an easy choice for me as they were already working for Brazil and Argentina. I had also worked with them coming from Unilever and did some really good work for Dove with the founder of David, Anselmo Ramos. The team was just opening a Miami office, so it was perfect. We had a true partner in crime sitting in the same city and sharing the same creative ambition. Even more importantly, it was someone who I trusted and they trust me a lot as well.

For the other markets, because of the nature of our business, we have to actually manage by franchisees. However, we work very closely with each of our overseas markets to choose the right agency and develop the right relationship. We have a really strong network of agencies that do the day-to-day work because they understand the brand so well and are also able to bring ideas that have the potential to become global ideas. Sometimes we partner with the local markets to make an idea global, to make it even bigger than if it had been executed only locally. Everything we do goes back to the owner's philosophy we have around here. We don't care what the name of the agency is and which network it belongs to, we just want to have people who we know share the same creative ambition, who are very, very creative and can collaborate. If you have those three ingredients you will end up doing good work.

Howard: Right. Well, the idea of trust is what obviously drives you inside, but it’s also likely a critical component of connecting with customers outside. Can you talk about things that are important in establishing trust regardless of your sector or industry?

Machado: I think that in most product categories, if you don't do the right thing, it will be difficult to establish trust. We live in an environment, largely because of social media, that tends to be very transparent and sometimes even when you're trying to do the right thing, it can be interpreted in the wrong way. So, we always aim to establish trust with our fans and with our guests by being as transparent as possible. For us, it’s like opening up the curtain so that they can see in and see who we really are.

Fast food does carry a stigma of not being a healthy category, which is not necessarily true. To be honest, and I'm not even just talking about Burger King, I think that most of the fast food brands out there definitely have products that are better than people think. All key players have been investing to increase food quality and to make the food real. So, while it's not such a glamorous part of my job, I would say that more than half of my time is managing the product portfolio and making sure that we have a roadmap so that our food is real, delivers better nutritional values, comes from better sourcing (sustainable) and doesn't impact the environment in a negative way. If you think about the Whopper, our burgers are 100% beef, no preservatives, no fillers, no artificial colors or flavors. Our tomatoes are real and are chopped in the restaurant everyday. Same with the onions. Our mayo is real mayo and not mayo dressing. The Whopper is flame grilled and made to order. In our case, our transparency centers around the never-ending job of improving the quality of our food.

We strive to do this in a transparent way so that people understand that the food is actually better than they think. It needs to be done in a real way, not glossy, staged or contrived. It’s a “what you see is what you get” type of advertising. I think that helps build trust. That's why our communications aim to be more authentic, more real, honest and self-deprecating. A combination of these things – having food that's real, and investing in a tone of voice that feels authentic – helps build trust for our brand. Never over-promise, be honest and transparent. Those to me are key in doing things right.

Howard: So, you were at Advertising Week. I'm sure you noticed that a lot of the topics of conversation were around this idea of human marketing and moving from the age of experience to the age of the individual. In a category that serves the masses like yours, I'm curious as to your thoughts on how you achieve the level of intimacy and personalization that's required today?

Machado: There are two or three pillars that can help you with that in QSR. The easiest one is probably the one that people talk about the most, which is social media through micro-targeting. This helps brands make sure that relevant information arrives to you in a channel that's relevant to you.

All of that is digital, and that’s what people spend a lot of time talking about, and it’s definitely important. However, there is another component, because of the product category that we are in, that has a weight that's probably disproportionately strong. Most people live, work or shop in a range of three miles from each other. We have a lot of people that come very often to the restaurants and that’s where the experience is so much more important and different than consumer goods, for example. For us, interactions, like when one of our crewmembers is talking to you, or when you put your order in at the drive thru, or if you are having a dining experience, you're in essence talking to the brand. Basically, when you're buying a product at Walmart, for example, you’re not talking to the brand you are buying. See what I mean?

For us today, the analog experience is really key. Burger King is kind of the bridge between a retail and a FMCG brand. So it's really tricky because we have 17,000 restaurants globally. How do we make sure that the crewmembers in the restaurant, which are hired by the franchisee, are consistent with the experience that we try to create in our headquarters in Miami? It's a never-ending labor of love to get everyone excited and make sure that we're delivering a great experience in the restaurant. That's one of the hardest things to do. If you can get it right, it can make such a big difference. Making sure that that service is consistent across all Burger King restaurants around the globe is where the focus should be when it comes to individualization. The strongest mark you can make today is the analog engagement that we offer at the restaurant.

Howard: Interesting. You know having the type of consistent experience you are referring to, really needs to start at home with internal culture. That’s a challenge that many brands have to face, without the further obstacles of a franchise model. What can you share about how you tackle all of that?

Machado: For us to deliver a great experience means we need to have our restaurant teams engaged. They need to want to do a good job and feel proud about the work they do. To do all of this, we need to make sure that we are there, leading by example and sharing what the culture of the brand is. We have to do that more and more and continue to put significant investment behind it. It has an effect. It's not easy to achieve, because it's not like just putting a TV spot on air or implementing a CRM program. Here, we're talking about people that need to be motivated. It’s certainly a challenge, but we try to prove every day that it can be done.

Howard: Something that you're also quite well known for is being at the cutting edge of culture. That’s obviously critically important for any brand and even more challenging to do considering that culture now moves at the speed of light. What are your thoughts on how to stay on top of things and move in “real time?”

Machado: It's important because we always want our brand to be relevant, and if you don’t find an emotional side door to what’s happening out there, things can become rather boring very fast. So, we like to think that we move at the pace of pop culture by having people here internally, and especially on the agency side, who have their fingers on the pulse of pop culture and are out there all the time looking at what’s happening. It works well only because they understand the brand so well.

In this capacity, it’s key to have a strong partnership with the agencies. This is so important to us because they are real partners of the brand and are very ambitious creatively. They are always bringing ideas to the table that insert our brand into conversations or insert a brand into pop culture. Another important thing, to our credit, is that we move very fast around here. So, when an agency brings an idea to the table that is touching on a topic, we know that if we don't champion these issues very quickly another brand will move in. In the past, people probably thought the news would linger a little bit. Now it's like after 24 hours or 48 hours it’s old, so we need to be super-fast. Our Google Home of the Whopper idea was presented and one week later we were launching the campaign. So the company moves very fast. Our CEO often speaks about how we have a startup mentality in the ways we work and go to market.

Howard: I always like to ask if there is anything you’d like to discuss that you feel we didn’t cover.

Machado:  I think we covered most of it, but what’s always important to me is what's next. We like to always focus on how can we keep raising the bar every time. I know it sounds silly, and may even be a little bit cliché, but it's really tough. You know, we've done so much in terms of creative and we’ve been fortunate to receive so much recognition from the industry when it comes to that. Because of that, and so many other reasons, there is always a challenge to do something even better than what you did last year. I think our brand works because people are very ambitious creatively and keep raising the bar. You always have to keep fighting the good fight when it comes to creativity. Always try to bring something that's surprisingly unique. Our fans expect that from us and it’s why we work so hard every day to get it right.