Burger King Japan crowdsources store sites — 12 new stores, ACC 2024 Grand Prix

Burger King Japan had only about 230 stores against McDonald's roughly 3,000, and fans' most common complaint was 'open one in my town.' Finding vacant sites was slow and expensive for a business still in its growth phase, so in February–March 2024 BK Japan Holdings launched a public call: submit a promising vacant property, and if it became a store, the first submitter would receive ¥100,000.

Turn fans' 'open in my town' complaints into a property-hunting force: anyone whose vacant-property lead becomes a store earns ¥100,000 (~$650).

A dedicated website collected leads and a promotional film spread the word on social media. Within 24 hours about 20,000 properties were submitted; the total surpassed 78,000. The leads were screened, negotiated and opened as stores one after another.

12 new stores opened from the crowdsourced leads (as of January 2025). The campaign generated 278 media coverages, earned media worth ¥343.1 million (~US$2.2 million) and 58 million impressions, and won the Grand Prix in the Branded Communication B (Promotion/Activation) category at the 2024 ACC Tokyo Creativity Awards.

Burger King Japan's biggest problem was reach: with only about 230 stores against McDonald's roughly 3,000, fans constantly begged the brand to open in their towns, yet finding vacant sites demanded manpower and money the young business did not have.

In February–March 2024, BK Japan Holdings turned the problem over to its fans. A special website asked people nationwide to submit vacant-property leads; if a submitted property became a store, the first person who proposed it received ¥100,000 (about US$650). The campaign drew about 20,000 submissions in its first 24 hours and more than 78,000 in total.

The leads were screened and turned into real stores: 12 new locations opened across Japan, from Hyogo and Kanagawa to Aichi and Osaka. Along the way the campaign earned 278 media coverages, ¥343.1 million (US$2.2 million) of earned media and 58 million impressions, and it took the Grand Prix in the Promotion/Activation category at the 2024 ACC Tokyo Creativity Awards.

It converted an operational weakness — slow, costly site hunting — into an asset that fans genuinely cared about solving.

The ¥100,000 reward was concrete, but the deeper incentive was personal: winners brought a Burger King to their own neighborhood.

Opening stores from real leads proved the promise, turning the campaign into news rather than advertising.

It showed a challenger brand beating a scale disadvantage with creativity, which is exactly what award juries reward.

A growth bottleneck can become the campaign: when you give the crowd a real role in solving your problem — with a tangible reward — customers stop asking for a store and start campaigning for one.

The first seven of the 12 stores were announced in October 2024, with openings from August to November across seven prefectures; Burger King Japan counted 242 stores by November 2024 and still targets about 600 by the end of 2028. The Produce and DE Inc. led the work, and the campaign's earned-media results made it a reference case for crowdsourcing store expansion.