Sacrifice is necessary for social media success

When the Whopper Sacrifice story broke last week, sites like Inside Facebook were applauding Burger King for creating advertising that goes beyond the banner ad.

But I think the success of the ad goes beyond its interactive nature and right into human behavior. In fact, they’ve done something which could change the way we look at virals…

If you haven’t already heard…

…it’s pretty simple. You add the Facebook application, then pick ten of your Facebook friends for sacrifice. Once those ten pictures go up in flames, you get a voucher for a free Whopper in the mail. (The ‘friends’ you just burned get a notification too.)

Why it works…

It makes you evaluate how much you want a Whopper. Everyone’s a sucker for a free burger. Hey, ten friends seems worth it, right?

Many people have commented on how good it felt to see people burn. No comment.

You can always add those friends back again, so no harm done.

It’s interactive, and so more memorable – unlike Facebook banners, which most marketers are realising don’t get looked at.

So what’s so revolutionary?

Traditionally virals involve spreading something interesting to your friends.

You might do this with the Whopper Sacrifice – sacrifice good friends whom you’ll add back later. But it’s more likely that these friends have a similar kind of network to you.

What the Whopper Sacrifice does is encourage you to spread the idea to people with very different networks – those you no longer talk to or dislike.

This way the idea moves faster, and it’s less likely anyone will hear about it enough to start ignoring it. The viral remains fresh and fast-moving.

Of course, it makes sacrifices to do so. But you could say they’re necessary for this campaign’s success.