#731 2019 · Popeyes (Restaurant Brands International, #ChickenWars) · Quick-service restaurants / marketing
Popeyes couldn't outspend Chick-fil-A, so it let Chick-fil-A build the ad for free
问题
A challenger launching into a category an incumbent already dominates can't win a paid-media fight against a rival with a far larger marketing budget and a more established position in the category
背景
Popeyes launched a new fried chicken sandwich on August 12, 2019, entering a category Chick-fil-A had defined and dominated for years with far greater brand recognition and marketing resources — a category leader Popeyes had no realistic paid-media budget to out-shout directly. For the first week after launch, the sandwich generated only modest attention.
On August 19, Chick-fil-A posted a tweet reading 'Bun + Chicken + Pickles = all the [heart emoji] for the original' — a pointed, if subtle, dig at Popeyes' new sandwich a week after its debut. Popeyes' social media team replied with two words: 'Y'all good?'
那一手
The two-word reply escalated into a public, days-long back-and-forth between the two chains' social accounts that other brands, media outlets and ordinary fans piled onto voluntarily, none of it paid placement. Popeyes' 'y'all good?' tweet alone drew over 320,000 likes and grew the brand's Twitter following by roughly 60% in the following weeks, versus a 4% increase for Chick-fil-A over the same period.
值了多少
Popeyes sold out of the new sandwich nationwide within 15 days of launch — the company's biggest product launch in 30 years — with sandwich sales estimated at around 1,000 units per store per day and store traffic roughly doubling during the period it was available; the product had to be pulled and relaunched two months later to meet demand. The unpaid Twitter exchange generated a reported $87 million in earned media value, and Popeyes' full-year same-store sales rose 13%, contributing roughly $1 billion in system-wide sales, off a campaign that spent almost nothing on paid media.
后来呢
The #ChickenWars campaign won the Grand Effie at the 2021 U.S. Effie Awards, selected from eight Gold Effie winners, and is now widely cited in marketing case studies as a model for challenger brands converting a dominant incumbent's own public reaction into free, high-reach earned media rather than competing on paid-media spend.
资料来源
- [1]Popeyes #ChickenWars Wins the Grand Effie at the 2021 U.S. Effie AwardsEffie Worldwide, 2021effie.org
- [2]Who Won the Twitter Fight Between Popeyes, Chick-Fil-A, and Wendy's?Chicago Booth Review (University of Chicago), 2021chicagobooth.edu