The (Burger) King of Underdog Stories ??

Fernando Machado had a dilemma.

As Chief Marketing Officer for Restaurant Brands International (RBI),? it was his responsibility to decide on amazing sponsorship opportunities for the Burger King brand.

Unfortunately, sponsoring top football teams can be expensive. And even then it is hard to get people to take notice.

So he looked for a different solution. Could he find an underdog story that he could use to go viral?

Unlike RBI who turned over billions, Stevenage Football Club had just marginally escaped relegation from the English football league system.

Languishing towards the bottom of League 2 (the fourth tier), their future was far from certain. ??

Crowds averaged less than 3,000 and with Premier League teams nearby, getting people through the turnstiles was difficult.

This task fell to CEO Alex Tunbridge. "We were quite keen to rip things up and try a new way of doing things," he said.

So when Burger King approached them about a sponsorship deal, they couldn’t believe their luck.

Despite initial backlash when the deal was announced (Burger King is a fast food brand after all), Stevenage shirts were selling out.

And they doubled down with expert precision. ??

In October 2019 they launched the 'Stevenage Challenge'. If people played with them on Fifa 20 and uploaded their goals to social media, they could win free food.

Stevenage played with more than any other team during the campaign and more than 25,000 goals were shared online. They got 1.2 billion online impressions, and the campaign was a huge success.

And it’s all about an underdog story, says Machado.

"If you're a crazy soccer fan that loves playing Fifa, it doesn't bother you to play with Stevenage, even if you're not a Stevenage fan, because we all cheer for the underdog and it's an underdog club."

Being an independent fuel retailer, it can be easy to feel like the underdog. You have less economies of scale and smaller resources, which can also make competing on price difficult. But, if you embrace being the underdog- and partner up with the right brands- you might just find ways to use this to your advantage too.

It's official - the new EdgePetrol podcast Fuel Matters has launched! ??

Every independent fuel retailer has their own unique growth story. ??

In our first episode, Hemant Tandon, Operations Director at 70-station family-owned business Park Garage Group Plc and I discuss:

??Tough times and using them to build resilience

??The stigma around failure

?? Whether fuel retailers will stick around for industry revolution

?? Subscribe/ listen on Spotify

??Subscribe/ listen on Apple Podcasts

??Subscribe/ listen on Amazon

Enjoy!