Shake Shack
“Good Things Take Shake Shack”
An integrated marketing campaign for Shake Shack built around a single insight: in a culture obsessed with speed, Shake Shack's premium positioning is a feature, not a bug. "Good things take a break" became the campaign platform — reframing wait time, quality, and craftsmanship as aspirational rather than inconvenient.
The Brief
Shake Shack is beloved but misunderstood. With a high price point, limited suburban coverage, and a famously slower service model, the brand faces persistent perception challenges against fast food competitors. The brief: develop a campaign that strengthens value perception, acquires new customers, and increases ShackBurger keyword search by 10% — without abandoning the premium positioning that makes Shake Shack worth it.
The Audience
Urban millennials aged 25–35, college-educated, middle to upper-middle class. Health-conscious, tech-savvy, and socially engaged — people who eat out 2–3 times a week, engage with brands on Instagram and TikTok, and prioritize quality over convenience. They're not looking for the cheapest option. They're looking for something worth the pause.
The Strategy
The campaign was built around three pillars: Good Things Take a Break (brand awareness through relatable work-culture content), Perfect Pairings (product storytelling through playful, shareable social formats), and Pop-Up Moments (experiential activations in high-traffic urban neighborhoods across New York, Boston, DC, and Miami).
Creative Executions
Three video concepts anchored the campaign. Love Shack reimagined a blind date show format where Sydney and Glen match the ShackBurger with its perfect milkshake — a TikTok-native concept built for shares. Log Out, Take a Break followed young professionals in a NYC office stepping away from their screens for a midday Shake Shack reset. Mile High Shack spoofed the cookie scene from Anyone But You, placing Shake Shack at the center of a Delta in-flight partnership. Each concept extended the "good things take time" platform through a different cultural lens.
Media strategy spanned TikTok influencer partnerships, SEO and paid search, in-app gamification through "Shack It Up" challenges, location-based push notifications, out-of-home scavenger hunts, and pop-up booths in Bryant Park, West Village, Domino Park, and beyond.
My Role
Campaign strategy, target audience development, creative concept development, media strategy, storyboard writing, and presentation design — in collaboration with a five-person team (Dania Aisyah, Michael Wang, Sasha Ratri, Ziyue Wang).