QSR May 2022

LEADERSHI P PROF I LE

Southern-fried chicken to spicy, New Orleans style, compares. And this time, everything started by breaking the internet, Siddiqui says. For two years, chefs in Popeyes’ Miami test kitchen quietly developed a buttermilk batter and tracked down a special f lour to create a crunchy texture intended for a chicken sandwich. It used the same buttery topping found on biscuits to coat the bun and cut barrel-cured pickles thicker than competitors’. Popeyes’ brass knew they were sitting on the biggest product launch in 30 years. Yet could the chain create buzz to match it? By now, few customers, industry pundits, or anybody on

the grid, isn’t familiar with what came next. Popeyes sparked a social media battle with Chick-fil-A in August 2019 and the sandwich sold out in two weeks. The brand moved as many in 14 days as it expected to from August to September. Accord ing to mobile location analytics platform Placer.ai, traff ic to Popeyes branches nationwide on August 20 and 21, rose a stag gering 67.6 and 103.3 percent, respectively, above the company’s summer baseline. Placer.ai summed it up simply: “This is an outrageously high peak.” Apex Marketing Group estimated Popeyes garnered $23 million in equivalent ad value across digital, print, social, TV, and radio in just the first 11 days (this number would eventu ally get to $65 million). More than 16 tweets per minute were f ired off during the f irst month. Some restaurants sold 1,000 chicken sandwiches per day. Ad Age said Popeyes’ Chick-f il A tweet earned more than 20 billion impressions worth some $220 million. Before the year closed, Popeyes more than dou bled its Twitter following and generated enough word-of-mouth momentum to cancel an ad campaign scheduled for Labor Day. What’s less known, however, is the effort actually began with a phone call. Kim Sánchez, owner of Sweet Dixie Kitchen, a trendy brunch spot in Long Beach, California, thought Pop eyes was ringing to let her know she was being sued. In 2017, the restaurant grabbed notorious headlines when it got caught serv ing Popeyes chicken and presenting it as its own. Sánchez was

POPEYES’ DEDICATION TO CULINARY IS ONE THING THAT WON’T CHANGE AS IT EXPANDS INTO NEW MARKETS.

POPEYES (2)

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MAY 2022 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com