It all started with LED Truck advertising trucks and IKahan's campaign in Long Beach, California, promoting Popeye's new chicken sandwich and defeating Chick-Fil-A in viral #ChickenWars through twitter.
Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen is a fast food restaurant founded in 1972 in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 2007 it was reported to be the second-largest restaurant chain in terms of open outlets around the world, located in 40 states and over 26 countries.
Although the brand was initially named "Chicken on the Run", it was later renamed to honor Popeye the Sailor.
Its menu specializes in fried chicken and southern food, while also offering seafood, vegetables, biscuits, and Cajun food with a spicy (or mild) touch. After starting with these options, and seeing how many people were buying chicken sandwiches, they decided in August to add them to the menu for only 4 dollars — the lowest price in the market.
A sandwich that not only looked better than the others that were already in the market but tasted better; It was made in a brioche bread with fried and crispy chicken breast, with mayonnaise or spicy Cajun sauce and filled with pickles, a delight for the palate of the clients.
Popeyes wanted to announce it in the biggest and most surprising way, that's why they used out-of-home advertising to reach many people as possible, because they knew this market would be a great challenge, especially with competitors like Chick-Fil-A.
Then, Popeyes fired off a legendary clap back to Chick-Fil-A's tweets...
Popeye's was challenging Chick-Fil-A's claim to the original chicken sandwich. The internet went wild...
And so, Popeyes started a Twitter war with the fast-food chains specialized in selling fried chicken, challenging them to discover who had the best and tastiest chicken sandwich.
Popeyes then took the opportunity to take a shot at another chicken sandwich competitor, Wendy's...
This Twitter war was joined by customers and influencers who had tried the sandwich and were convinced that it was not only the cheapest but the most balanced, best tasting and, without a doubt, their favorite.
All this buzz created a trend and made everyone who hadn't tried it crazy to taste the new item on the menu, to the point where, only two weeks after being launched, it was SOLD OUT. Many people couldn't satisfy their craving, but the restaurant workers were relieved to able to rest from the long lines of customers constantly coming in, eager to taste the best chicken sandwich first-hand.
The result? Popeye's quickly SOLD OUT their chicken sandwiches across the USA just to weeks after launching it, adding $23M in value.
This outcome is something that the CEO and members of the Popeyes' team couldn't have imagined. It's also something that wouldn't have been possible without the assistance of LED Truck digital billboards that were responsible for giving people the scoop on the new product and its launch date while complementing the company's strategic social media use.
If you didn't know, now you know #ChickenWars #LEDTrucks.