Case Study

Popeyes chicken sandwich

The story:

Popeyes chicken sandwich was its most significant PR move. On August 12, Popeyes introduced the chicken sandwich, and it was a considerable hit. In two weeks, they realized it was a huge hit, and they were running out. They created a twitter just for the sandwich and began to get into twitter wars. Their rapid-fire response came within minutes: a re-tweet of the Chick-fil-A message along with a simple two-word reply: “Y’all good?” Sadly Popeye had to pull the sandwich from the menu. In the long run it was a positive because this is what helped to increase the publicity of the sandwich. On August 27, the company posted a video on its official Twitter account thanking customers for their fanatical devotion to the sandwich. Popeyes U.S. comparable-store sales increased more than 10 percent during the third quarter, its best result in two decades. As people impatiently waited for the return of the sandwich, Popeye’s blew up on twitter. The longer the wait the more twitter blew up. Finally, Popeyes came out with BYOB which stood for bring your own bun. People could bring their own buns to Popeyes. This was extremely creative. The bring your own bun method in a new digital video with shots of scorned customers voicing skeptical reactions to different DIY solutions. On October 28, Popeyes took another dig at Chick-fil-A in an online video, talking about the return of the chicken sandwich. The date had been set that the chicken sandwich would return on November 3, 2019. On October 31, just three days after Popeyes posted its “Road Sign” video, Chick-fil-A was forced to apologize for an email it had sent earlier in the week urging customers to place their orders on National Sandwich Day. Of course, seeming not to notice that it was on November 3, 2019. The return of the Popeyes chicken sandwich on November 3, 2019, brought more PR wins and glowing online customer reviews. The twitter war continued and was more significant than ever. Popeyes continued their viral feud with Chick-fil-A on Twitter during the week before Thanksgiving, tweeting, “I’m gonna tell my kids this is the Original Chicken Sandwich” with a picture of its own chicken sandwich.

Social media campaign 

A new chicken sandwich

Method:

Make a brand trend on social media  

Why did it work:

Popeye’s social media team did a fantastic job on this chicken sandwich. Their PR team also did a fantastic job of increasing publicity. Moves that made it work:

• Created a witty twitter account to increase attention before the sandwich every came out
• Made jokes to rivals to generate awareness. Along with their rapid-fire responses.
• Running out of chicken sandwiches was probably not part of the plan but, it played in their favor. The sandwich was already a major success, and then running out just made people want it even more. This created so much attention; because people were talking about it on twitter and posting memes about the sandwich. This was a crucial part of the chicken sandwich, becoming a major hit.
• BYOB- a brilliant idea for Popeyes to come up with. This changed the game because, to my knowledge, no other chain has ever done a bring your own bun. This was new and fun.
• “Road Sign”- this just happened to work out in Popeye’s favor. Chick Fil A really messed up and did not correctly use social media. They paid for it through their apology email being blasted on Twitter for the world to see. This gave Popeyes a lot more support through their fans and even helped them to gain fans. It was extremely unfortunate for Chick Fli A that the national sandwich day fell on a Sunday. Popeyes won more customers on this Sunday.
• Popeyes won the twitter war without a doubt.

Key Notes

• Popeye’s social media campaign and twitter are what made this sandwich. To be successful, your social media platform has to stand out. You have to gain support just as Popeyes did.
• You have to stay on top of your social media platform and respond to people. This creates brand loyalty. Popeyes never lied to their fans or customers. They were honest about the sandwich running out, and this increased brand loyalty.
• They used user-generated content through memes to gain more views.

Mercedes-Benz

The story:

The “No Limits” campaign is keyed to a two-minute video ad in which Mercedes-Benz questions girls’ self-perceptions. While it promotes the fact that the brand has been associated with pioneering women. Young girls are seated at a table with a bunch of toys to choose from. They ask the girls why they did not select the boys’ toys. Then they showed them a short video of Ewy Rosqvist, an Argentinian race-car driver, winning the nation’s Grand Prix in 1962. The video was extraordinarily moving, and to hear the new reactions of the young girls was touching. This was just the start of the “No limits” campaign. Proceeds from the sales will be used to make and distribute additional cars, and a teaching tool kit will be provided. In a press release, the companies describe, “Through February 2020, girls across the U.S., through more than 100 organizations, will engineer toy racetracks, design cars, engage with female role models, and attend STEM workshops through programs designed to expand how they see their future.” As a takeaway gift, 50,000 girls will receive a toy replica of the Mercedes-Benz 220SE that Rosqvist used to win the Grand Prix. The toy itself designed to remind girls of Rosqvist’s win and to encourage the girls that they can also forge new paths for women.

Social media campaign

GirlsHaveNoLimits

Method

Brand purpose

Why it worked

There are several key reasons why this worked. The first is right now people are talking a lot about how girls can become anything they want. This was a perfect time to do this video. They had everything in this ad to make it a success. They tugged on heartstrings with Ewy winning the race with all the men. Not only did she finish first, but she was the first person to win every stage of the race, set a new speed record, and beat the previous champion by over three hours. When she said, “they said I would never finish, so I finished first.” Powerful and moving words. This created so much brand awareness because she was even in a Benz. The whole commercial was all about the brand, but instead of being straight forward with it, they gained your support. Next, another key factor is that they are now helping young girls. They are getting their name out there for being behind how women can do anything. Donating money to STEM to help young women improve their education. Another key factor was selling the toy cars in the store to remind young women they can have any toy they want and be whatever they want. This created brand awareness in stores to remind people about Benz. Finally, their hashtag #NOLIMT was brilliant to get people to support women along with Benz. Extremely creative use of PR and social media.

Key Notes

• Benz knew their audience or anyone for that matter loves a compelling and moving story; this was the perfect way to get brand awareness.
• The hashtag was a trend anytime people saw it they thought of Benz and how they are helping young girls.
• STEM got them publicity, and people talking about serious they were about helping young girls. This made people gain even more respect for Benz.