Wendy's Camden Makeover

Wendy's iconic logo takes on Camden's rich punk culture

Office: United Kingdom

Client: Wendy's

In the vibrant heart of London's Camden, Wendy's has unveiled a captivating mural to celebrate the launch of its eighth UK restaurant - paying tribute to Camden's independent spirit and eclectic fashions over the years.

Yes, Wendy got a makeover - and went viral on social media.

As a new brand entering such a culturally rich neighborhood, it was important for us to show respect for the community and showcase the genuine excitement we have to become a part of it.

Tony Barr Senior International Marketing Director APMEA & Europe, Wendy’s

The UK Quick Service Restaurant market is dominated by two big two burger icons, together holding 92% share. Everyone else, from chicken shops and pizza takeouts, to small burger joints and fast-food shops in between, were fighting for the scraps that were left. Wendy’s is the No.2 burger chain in the US but had never competed on UK soil. They were launching in 6 areas only with a view to maximising visibility ahead of rolling out across the UK.

To gain brand love in this market we needed to harness the power of authenticity, getting under the skin of our audience and working with them help to create work people wanted to engage with and share organically. Positioning ourselves as an alternative who celebrates distinct regional identities and differences in a much more modern way by starting with our audience first, it was about time a girl showed the big boys how serving local communities is done right.

In true Wendy’s style, using our iconic character and sassy TOV, we paid homage to Camden culture with punk-style murals out on the street for everyone to see. We asked a local graffiti collective to give Wendy’s icon an array of new hair-dos that best represented the local community - an elaborative bouffant, a punk-inspired mohawk and an iconic ‘emo’ style. To drive further reach and audience participation, we encouraged locals to vote for their favourite style on social so they could have a say on the icon that would represent their community restaurant for years to come.

With Wendy’s still a new entity to the people of the UK, the mural allowed us to arrive in a key location with a unique point of view and personality, helping establish an emotional connection to the brand, as well as increasing awareness. We achieved 2 billion earned reach across local, regional, national and international news including: Thrillist, Metro, Evening Standard and the Mirror. And created quite the buzz on social with 24,394 mentions of "Emo Wendy" on Twitter during the campaign, and over 650k engagements. We also reached 3.2m people on Instagram with a benchmark-breaking 5.54% engagement rate.