We conceived the world's first Facebook-based brand character and went about creating content that would support his persona online. His name was Woody, and he publicly made a bet with TGI Fridays that, if he could get a half a million people to 'fan' him on Facebook, TGI Friday's would award them with a free burger.
Crazy, right?
Well, we did it. Er, Woody did it.
In fact, in the end, he got 1 million fans and each one of them got a free burger at TGI Friday's.
Sales were through the roof. TGI Friday's got lots of attention, as did the campaign. It even won a Webby.
As Woody’s popularity grew he began to drown in his own stardom.
Needless to say, Wendy’s didn’t think this piece of web-content was funny at all…but the brand didn’t budge and kept running it.
Woody’s girlfriend wasn’t a big fan of all the fans Woody was getting.