Silver
Creative Strategy
Use of Social Media
| Entrant: | VML, Kansas City |
| Brand: | Wendy's |
| Title: | "Wendy's Enters the Chat" |
| Corporate Name of Client: | The Wendy's Company |
| Client Company: | The Wendy's Company, Dublin, OH |
| Global Chief Marketing Officer: | Carl Loredo |
| Chief Marketing Officer: | Lindsay Radkoski |
| Client Company VP, Global Brand Engagement: | Jimmy Bennett |
| Client Company VP, Global Strategic Communications & Creative Storytelling: | Frank Vamos |
| Client Company Manager, Social Media: | Lauren Morten |
| PR Company: | Ketchum, Chicago |
| Agency: | VML, Kansas City |
| Agency Chief Executive Officers: | Jon Cook/Mel Edwards |
| Global Chief Creative Officer: | Debbi Vandeven |
| Chief Creative Officers: | John Godsey/Alli Pierce |
| Executive Creative Director: | McKay Hathaway |
| Group Creative Directors: | Ryan Barkhuizen/Eamon Conway |
| Creative Directors: | Matt Keck/Conor Clarke |
| Senior Copywriter: | Hayden Griffin |
| Copywriters: | Hannah Cruise/Emily Friedman |
| Art Directors: | Sara Ryan/Morgan Walker |
| Client Company Global Director, Social Media & Digital Engagement: | Kristin Tormey |
| Agency Manager, Innovation & Data: | Jeremy Cline |
| Agency Connections Supervisor: | Emmy Hanlon |
| Agency Connections Supervisor – Social: | Jessica Wiggins |
| Agency Associate Connections Director – Social Strategy: | Samantha Schuster |
| Agency Chief Client Officer, NA: | Jennifer McDonald |
| Agency Account Manager: | Ally Friend |
| Agency Managing Director, Client Engagement: | Kelly Gartenmayer |
| Agency Associate Director, Client Engagement: | Colin Belmont/Adam Scherzer |
| Agency Managing Director, Strategy & Insights: | Bret Smith |
Description:
Wendy’s innovative social media strategy drove such massive engagement and reach that we secured the No. 1 organic share of voice in the entire restaurant category on the world’s largest social platform, Facebook — beating our biggest competitor, McDonald’s, by 30%.
Wendy’s connected with younger generations by tapping into a universal human and social media behavior: our parents' (aka boomers) quirks.
Both on and off of social media, these quirks can be irritating, but endearing. Wendy’s bravely disregarded established Facebook best practices and embraced boomer best practices, leading Meta to adopt our strategy as new best practices to reach GenZ.