They’re not really to win over any Texans, who comprehend that red meat is the true foundation of excellent barbecue (disclosure: the writer is primarily based within the Lone big name State), however Wendy’s is taking a shot with a brand new integrated interactive effort selling limited-time pulled pork menu gadgets.

Kansas city-based VML, Wendy’s digital agency of document, wanted to go past the lean-back experience that video commercials in most cases offer, and therefore conceived of a “choose your individual adventure”-model ingenious known as #CrackTheMasters.

“We did need to interact our audience in a extra interactive way as an alternative of just exposing them passively to video content material,” Chris Corley, workforce inventive director at VML, instructed me.

The resulting video, which is appearing in organic and paid placements on YouTube, facebook and Twitter, introduces viewers to 3 pitmasters with differing types: Sauce grasp, Smoke master and Hip grasp.

As viewers watch, they’re requested to choose a master to take a look at to “crack.” After making their selection, they’re shuffled to another video that includes the chef they’ve chosen. they need to then make a selection the right way to convince the grasp to share his secret recipe. The procedures customers can choose from correspond with the three sauce options Wendy’s is offering with its pulled pork sandwich and pulled pork cheese fries: candy, spicy or smoky.

once an approach is chosen, a brand new video — featuring the pit grasp’s reaction — plays. Viewers are either told they’ve “cracked” the master, or they’re supplied the opportunity to take a look at once more. With three pitmasters and three totally different approaches, there are a total of thirteen movies to look ahead to the whole experience.

here’s the way it plays out:

Viewers on fb, as a minimum, seem to be playing the experience and sharing their results socially — encouraged through Wendy’s neighborhood manager.

At the time of this writing, the introductory video has gotten 319K views on YouTube; eight retweets and sixteen favorites on Twitter (which doesn’t publicly convey views); and 490K views, three.5K likes and 182 shares on facebook. The video auto-plays on all three websites. (be aware that the program didn’t begin on the related time on all three sites, so comparisons wouldn’t be honest.)

all the watching happens on the unique platform upon which the consumer encountered the video. In different phrases, when you’re on fb, you keep on fb and watch the entire videos there. similar with YouTube and Twitter. simplest the first video is uncovered to non-gamers, though — the remainder are darkish postings.

“We need to at all times meet our audience where they are,” stated Corley. “riding them far from the web page they’re on may restrict their engagement. Plus, it’s just the friendlier thing to do.”

The interactive consumer experience is most totally realized on YouTube, because it makes use of clickable video overlays that the opposite websites at present lack. both fb and Twitter are pressured to incorporate hyperlinks within the textual content area of the submit, which the user must click on to progress the story. And, on probably the most integrations, the arrow pointing to the linked choices finally ends up pointing in the mistaken path.

The target market for the Wendy’s advertising is finding #CrackTheMasters in plenty of ways. the brand is working video commercials focused to barbecue-interested users and the Millennial demographic on Twitter, facebook and YouTube. as a minimum one sponsored blog put up touting both the menu gadgets and the interactive video game is showing on Southern bite.

additionally, television spots that launched concurrently and have the same actors force viewers to the Wendy’s YouTube channel.

VML’s Corley explained the technique like this:

along with the URL on the end of the tv spot that leads to the Wendy’s YouTube channel, Corley says the corporate has also invested in barbecue-related organic and paid search to higher make the connection between the tv and on-line experiences.

Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not essentially marketing Land. body of workers authors are listed here.

about the writer

Pamela Parker

Pamela Parker is govt options Editor at Search Engine Land and marketing Land. She’s a smartly-respected authority on digital advertising and marketing, having pronounced and written on the topic due to the fact that 1998. She’s a former managing editor of ClickZ, and labored on the trade aspect serving to independent publishers monetize their websites at Federated Media Publishing.

(Some photography used below license from Shutterstock.com.)