Burger King’s ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ Collab Part of New ‘Family-First’ Marketing Strategy

Fans (and investors) watching Burger King may be pleased to note that the fast-food chain is apparently leaning heavily into its turnaround — nearly three years into the initiative, per CNBC.

On May 27, a slew of menu items related to the upcoming live-action movie release of “How To Train Your Dragon” — originally presented in 2010 by DreamWorks Animation Studios, a subsidiary of Universal, the latter of which is releasing this latest franchise entry — will hit Burger King restaurants nationwide.

Some notable standouts, according to a May 21 Burger King press release, include: the Dragon Flame-Grilled Whopper, complete with a red-and-orange colored bun; Fiery Dragon Mozzarella Fries, featuring “melty mozzarella cheese, peppers and Fiery Calabrian chili pepper-breading” to add some spice to the traditional snack; Soaring Strawberry Lemonade, made with lemonade, sugar, fruit puree, and natural flavors; and the Viking’s Chocolate Sundae, which is comprised of vanilla soft-serve ice cream, Hershey’s chocolate syrup, and black and green cookie crumble.

“At BK, we love to bring partnerships to life that create an awesome experience for families. Our new collaboration with How to Train Your Dragon is going to be fun for both kids and kids at heart,” Joel Yashinsky, CMO for Burger King United States and Canada, said.

“Our team has created a delicious menu inspired by the beloved characters and themes of this exciting new movie that brings that experience to Burger King restaurants,” he added.

Burger King Pivoting Toward ‘Family-First’ Marketing Strategy To Drive Sales, Traffic

As CNBC reported, the “How To Train Your Dragon” promotion — following other successful recent collabs such as those featuring “The Addams Family” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” — is yet another step toward BK’s adoption of a more family-focused drive to increase U.S. sales.

“Where we’re really starting to lean in now that we’ve made some progress in both operations and in our restaurants is on a family-first marketing strategy,” the outlet quoted Burger King U.S. and Canada President Tom Curtis as saying.

“We’re finding that there will be chapters to this as we go through time, and right now is this family strategy chapter, where we’ve done enough work and transformed our restaurant operations to the extent that we’re proud of. We’re inviting families back in, and we’re finding that we’re getting better retention when they do come back in,” Curtis added.

Curtis gestured toward the notion of appealing to a range of age demographics by appealing to not only parents, but members of Generation Alpha — defined as those who were born between 2010 and 2025. Furthermore, according to the BK exec, the increasing use of social media by parents allows word of mouth to spread news organically, backed by diners’ (and their kids’) enthusiasm.