Today when a big tentpole film is on the horizon we don't blink twice at the elements of it's
marketing that we've come to expect.
Trailers, commercials, Happy meal toys.
It's all run of the mill.
Yet for something so forgettable as a kids meal toy, they were a pretty big deal for
the parties involved in the 1990’s.
For Burger King in particular it was a rare opportunity to take a shot at their perpetual
foes, McDonald's.
The Walt Disney Company had a brief history with McDonald's that only dated back a few
years to a promotional campaign to help advertise Disney's upcoming attraction, Splash Mountain
in 1989.
Due to delays in the ride's construction, it was a rocky start for a relationship that was bound to dissolve
just as quickly as it had begun.
As it was reported after the fact, Disney and McDonald’s relationship began to deteriorate
by 1990 and 1991.
Disney had supposedly pitched a kid’s meal tie-in for their action film, The Rocketeer,
that McDonald’s rejected outright.
They also had a reported falling out over the promotional tie-in for the film Dick Tracy.
McDonald's, being a worldwide leader in the fast food industry was in a unique position
to push back against Disney when they weren't happy with a deal.
So when it came time to look for a fast-food partner to work with for their upcoming animated
feature, Beauty and Beast, Disney instead turned to McDonald’s competitor, Burger
King, who jumped at the offer.
It was a win-win for the two companies.
Burger King, perpetually trailing behind McDonald’s, saw it as an opportunity to close the gap
between themselves and their number one fast food rival.
As for Disney, beyond the help the tie-ins would have with marketing their films, they’d
find themselves having an easier time working with Burger King.
Being so eager to capitalize on the partnership, Burger King was extremely open to running
with Disney’s ideas and didn’t resist their proposals the way McDonald’s did.
After all, this partnership was somewhat of a gift that fell into their lap, and had they
given Disney a hard time Disney might have just moved onto another fast food chain or
just back over to McDonald’s.
Rather than signing into a long-term agreement, Disney and Burger King approached each tie-in
promotion on a case by case basis, starting in 1991 with Beauty and Beast which happened
to also be promoted through Pizza Hut as well.
From there the tie-ins would range from new films like Aladdin and the Nightmare Before
Christmas to re-releases of classics like Pinocchio, to even the 20th anniversary of
Walt Disney World.
The following year Burger King ended up spending a reported $25 million dollars on the Aladdin
promotion which involved selling 20 million character toys.
They were gambling a lot of money, but the payoff was just as large.
You see, the whole reason these promotional tie-ins were so coveted by fast food chains
was because of something called the multiplier effect.
Commercial: “Hey!
Right now Burger King has these cool Toy Story puppets.
They’re from the new Disney movie!
You can collect all four, $1.99 each with any Kid’s Club meal.
Only at Burger King!
And bring the folks, you might have your hands full.”
In many cases the toys were sold for a set price, usually between $1.50 and $1.99 along
side the normal price of a kids meal.
On top of that the children who wanted these toys were typically being brought to Burger
King by their parents who often purchased something for themselves as well.
As a result Burger King reported in 1995 that checks that included a $1.99 kid’s meal
toy were averaging around $7.00 in total.
Expand that out to 20 million toys and, well, Burger King was easily getting their money’s
worth out of the partnership.
Not only that, but the structure of the tie-in spread out the earnings.
Rather than selling all of the character toys at once, Burger King would introduce a new
toy every week, ensuring that those looking to collect all four would have to keep coming
back to the restaurant, and usually that meant they’d continue to buy more food.
And that was just the beginning.
As the Disney Decade progressed and the company grew, so to did the promotional events over
at Burger King.
In 1994 they struck gold with the promotional tie-ins for The Lion King, which ended up
selling 15 million toys in just the first two weeks of the summer-long program.
In fact, the promotion was so successful that Burger King would later point out that customer
traffic increased by 19% that summer.
It wasn’t pushing them past McDonald’s, but it was helping them along just enough
for McDonald’s to take notice and do something about it.
That next year McDonald’s responded by launching a series of their own promotions, and while
they didn’t have movie toys to use as ammunition, they did have their prices.
In January of 1995 they lowered the price of their Big Mac to 95 cents, and the following
months saw other key menu items reduced in price.
But that year Burger King would still secure the tie-in rights to Pocahontas and Toy Story.
Toy Story was an especially large campaign, estimated to run at a cost of $45 million
and with 35 million toys sold.
Burger King was in a good position. In fact they were in too good of a position, because McDonald’s started to
make it known that they were interested in working with Disney again.
Now one might think that the deal with Burger King was working well, and that Disney wouldn’t
have a reason to rock the boat, but there was an appeal to switching back to McDonald’s.
While they were still the number one chain, they they hungry for the partnership, which
presented the chance that they’d be easier to work with this time around.
On top of that, they were still the number one chain.
With nearly 19,000 locations across 93 countries, McDonald’s offered far more promotional
opportunity than Burger King, which for comparison, only had 9,000 locations across 56 nations.
At first McDonald’s dipped their toes back into the water by bidding on a couple of one-off
promotions that Burger King declined, with James and the Giant Peach and the live-action
remake of 101 Dalmatians.
However Disney’s previous few years of successful films, with a little pinch of competitive
envy, put them in the perfect position to sell a lucrative and long-term deal to McDonald’s.
So in 1996 Disney would switch things up and sign a 10-year long contract with McDonald’s
that spanned beyond just toy tie-ins, and would also include locations in the Disney
parks and even a ride sponsorship.
Disney and McDonald’s had a long and profitable future to look forward to, but suddenly Burger
King was left out in the cold.
Burger King expressed their disappointment in the decision but made it clear that they
weren’t worried about continuing on without Disney.
The movie tie-in concept was more than proven by that point and there were plenty of other
fish in the sea.
So the following year Burger King would partner with Universal to help promote the upcoming
sequel to Jurassic Park, The Lost World, and just a few years after that they’d find
themselves signing a deal with Dreamworks Animation to help promote their films.
That partnership would last for seven years before it was ended.
Unfortunately it was ended because Dreamworks was moving on to partner with a different
fast food chain…
McDonald’s.
It was a tug of war that started with Burger King in second place, and ended with Burger
King in second place.
It was a fruitful six years that, as luck would have it, allowed Burger King to capitalize
on some of Disney’s best films of the era.
And it was a stark reminder of how quickly a good deal can come to an end in the world of business.
I want to thank you all for watching! If you’d like to learn more about the larger history between McDonald’s
and Disney that stretches all the way back to the days of Walt himself, be sure to go check out Defunctland’s
episode on the subject.
It’s a great look back at the full picture in which this three-way tango with Burger
King, McDonald’s, and Disney was just a blink of the eye