By Scott Donaldson
Author & Content Specialist
With Queen’s Birthday and the Platinum Jubilee Central Weekend celebrations coming up, now is a good time to take a look back at some right royal marketing campaigns.
New Zealand marks Queen’s Birthday Weekend on Monday 6 June. In addition, the United Kingdom comes together for the Platinum Jubilee Central Weekend to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years as a monarch.
The Queen reached her milestone 90th birthday back in 2016. And marketers took the opportunity to celebrate in style. A lot of people also used Twitter hashtags #HappyBirthdayYourMajesty and #Queenat90 for the occasion.
Let’s take a look at some of the marketing campaigns for the Queen’s 90th Birthday in 2016.
1) Burger Queen anyone?
A central London Burger King received a royal makeover fit for a queen.
The Tottenham Court Road branch was re-branded into the Burger Queen for one day only, to celebrate her majesty’s birthday.
The restaurant also offered customers a Chicken Royale with small fries for £1.99. What a bargain!
It was one of several marketing campaigns by Burger King at the time.
According to the Time magazine website, Burger King opened a spa including a sauna and steam rooms with space for 15 people in Finland.
A separate 10-person sauna was decked out with a 48-inch television for social gatherings and birthday parties. The spa also featured a media lounge with gaming consoles and a laundry. Customers could order their burgers at any time during their visit. What more could you want?
Among the fast food chain’s other creations at the time was a burger-scented perfume in Japan. Burger King also embraced San Francisco’s Pride festival – by launching The Proud Whopper burger. Another marketing campaign was for International Day of Peace. Burger King staff worked alongside their McDonald’s counterparts with sales proceeds donated to the Peace One Day charity.
2) The Queen’s 90th Birthday Ad Break
This was the ultimate TV commercial featuring 11 well-known brands and actors preparing for a massive Queen’s Birthday party “fit for a queen”.
The campaign included iconic UK brands Cadbury, Ribena, Interflora and McCain Foods among others in a cheesy old-fashioned party scene.
Partnering with talent management company James Grant, the ad break takeover was broadcast during ITV’s live show in the presence of the Queen.
Twinings created a new blend of tea and a limited edition collector’s tin, to commemorate the big day. The tea comprised of black teas from three Commonwealth countries: India, Kenya and Sri Lanka.
Also the tin was designed with the Queen’s interests in mind, including symbols representing her love of horses, hats and royal duties.
The cleverly named ‘Queens of Parts’ portrait was designed by three technicians from the car servicing company Kwik Fit in England. Led by the artist David Parfitt and technicians Stuart Packham, Dan Read and Pete Hunt, the structure was a massive 3.5m x 2.5m. It was comprised of more than 800 car and truck parts. The 115kg artwork took 280 hours to complete.
The artwork paid homage to the Queen’s work as an army mechanic in the Auxiliary Territorial Service during the Second World War.
Watch this interesting video of the making of the Queens of Parts portrait.
5) Zizzi – Pizza creation
Italian restaurant chain Zizzi turned pizza into art with its Ma’amgharita creation, to mark the Queen’s 90th birthday. This piece of delicious food art featured Her Majesty created with fresh Italian ingredients in an iconic pose. It was set on the backdrop of the Union Jack. Her face was made of sweet corn, grated parmesan and yellow pepper with tomato sauce. The Union Jack consisted of red pepper, black olives and mozzarella cheese.
Zizzi wasn’t new to making pizzas of the royals. They had made a special pizza previously, in 2015, to celebrate when Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge, née Kate Middleton, presented their new baby (Charlotte) on the steps of the Lindo Wing at St Mary’s Hospital.
A chocolate creation fit for a queen was created at Birmingham’s Cadbury World, in honour of Her Majesty’s 90th birthday.
Two Cadbury World workers spent four days constructing a detailed chocolate replica of Buckingham Palace. The masterpiece, complete with ornate gates and chocolate Queen’s guards, weighed 60kg and stood at 70cm tall. It followed on from previous regal creations by Cadbury, including chocolate toys for Prince George’s birth and a 12kg chocolate pram for the arrival of Princess Charlotte.
What is your favourite Queen’s Birthday ad campaign?
