A closer look at the new Burger King breakfastA closer look at the new Burger King breakfast

Bret Thorn

Burger King revealed Thursday a detailed look at its much-touted line of nine new breakfast items, which the No. 2 burger chain calls “its largest menu expansion ever,” as well as the new marketing campaign surrounding the items.

The Miami-based chain’s corporate innovation chef, Jason Sullivan, described the new items in detail at a press conference Thursday in New York City.

The breakfast bowl: The item includes roasted potatoes, grilled onions and peppers, sausage, a three-cheese blend and smoky cheese sauce, and also features eggs that are scrambled in-house. The pasteurized eggs are cooked either in a microwave oven or on a griddle insert that can be placed on the fryers. Only some units, such as those in Mexico, have been outfitted with the insert.

Pancakes: Sullivan said the new pancakes are designed to appeal to American tastes and convey an initial flavor of molasses, followed by buttermilk and finally a vanilla finish.

Ciabatta club sandwich: He said the bread in the breakfast ciabatta club sandwich, which contains eggs, tomato, ham, bacon, American cheese and smoky tomato sauce, is prepared with whole grains. The sauce is intended to emulate sun-dried tomatoes, and the bacon-tomato combination is meant to evoke the sensation of eating a club sandwich.

NRN Blogs: Check out Food Writer’s Diary for the author’s take on BK’s breakfast.

Earlier coverage: Descriptions of the new BK menu items 

Breakfast is the only daypart in quick service that is growing, according to The NPD Group, which said breakfast traffic rose 2 percent for the quarter ended in June, over the same quarter a year ago. Lunch and dinner traffic each fell 1 percent in the quarter and the afternoon snack daypart was flat.

NPD also recently released a study indicating that breakfast accounted for 60 percent of growth in foodservice traffic over the past five years. The market research firm's spokeswoman Kim McLynn added that, based on foodservice and population trends, breakfast sandwiches would outpace restaurant growth in the coming years and that annual per-capita consumption of the sandwiches, which was at 11 in 2004, would reach 14 by 2019.

Burger King also debuted its new advertising campaign to promote the breakfast fare, which will coincide with the first Monday Night Football game of the National Football League season.

The campaign, which targets the quick-service burger chain’s core demographic of 18- to 34-year-old males, will include six commercials planned around the theme of a “breakfast march,” said Michael Kappitt, BK’s chief marketing officer for North America

The first spot features a troupe of early risers marching and chanting: “Burger King for breakfast? There’s really such a thing.”

Future 30-second spots will showcase new menu items, although one will focus on the best-selling Croissan’wich, which Kappitt described as the Whopper of the 12,000-plus-unit chain’s breakfast segment.

Kappitt said he also planned “media integration” with Comedy Central and VH1.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].