'The creative brain cannot focus just on one thing': Why Burger King is sticking with ad agencies

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• Other brands may be bringing in more of their marketing in-house, but not Burger King.
• The fast-food chain works with a roster of key agency partners, from WPP's David to MullenLowe Boston, to name a few.
• It has no plans to change that, said Fernando Machado, its global chief marketing officer.
• "I would fear that I would not be able to capture the best creative people that currently work for us if I forced them to work in just one brand," he told Business Insider.

Many big brands are increasingly assembling their own in-house teams - or even bespoke dedicated agencies - to produce their advertising.

But not Burger King.

The fast-food chain works with a wide roster of ad agencies, and has no plans of changing gears, Fernando Machado, its global chief marketing officer, told Business Insider in a recent interview.

"I personally believe that if you are creative, you need to be thinking about more than one thing at the same time," he said. "The creative brain cannot focus just on one thing, I think that people tend to get bored when they do that."

A few of Burger King's key ad agency partners include WPP's David, MullenLowe Boston, LOLA MullenLowe, Grabarz & Partners, and La Despensa in Spain, which have consistently delivered ideas for the brand on a variety of platforms including PR, digital and of course, TV.

Some of its most iconic campaigns - from "Subservient Chicken" to "Google Home for the Whopper" - have come from its agency partners. And Machado doesn't mind that they have other clients.

In fact, he thinks that's a good thing.

"I would fear that I would not be able to capture the best creative people that currently work for us if I forced them to work in just one brand," he said.

With a diverse range of agencies on speed dial, Machado said he was "spoiled for choice" and probably had "more ideas than we can deploy." He added that Burger King's agencies were not separate from, but rather an extension of, its internal marketing team.

"I think we have a very strong and talented group of people that work for the brand - and I'm not just talking about the marketing team, I'm talking about the marketing team and our key agency partners," he said.

So far, this formula has been working well for Burger King, he said, adding that the brand would continue to do it that way.

"Because they know that we execute good ideas and we are willing to pick up the fight to make it happen, they end up flocking," he said. "We attract those people and the type of agencies that have the same high creative ambition."