Popeyes

Popeyes: The Great Chicken Coup

Client Category
Food & Beverage · QSR · Franchise & Retail

Services Provided
Brand Strategy · Campaign Creative · Digital Content · Social Media · Media Strategy · Local Store Marketing · Franchise Launch Support · Influencer Strategy

Business Challenge

In 2015, Popeyes Canada was a 20-store underdog in a market dominated by century-old chicken empires. KFC owned heritage. McDonald’s owned ubiquity. Canadians barely knew Popeyes existed — and when they did, they doubted it could compete.

The challenge was monumental:
How do you convince a nation of loyal chicken eaters to switch to a brand they’d never tried?

To win, Popeyes couldn’t play by the rules of the incumbents.
They had to overthrow them.

Strategic Insight

Canadians weren’t just hungry for chicken.
They were starving for personality.

In a category full of corporate sameness, Popeyes had something rare:
real Louisiana soul.
Real swagger. Real spice.

Our insight was simple but powerful:
If we treated every opening like a cultural moment and every product launch like an event, Popeyes could become the most exciting brand in Canadian QSR.

This aligned perfectly with BYU’s challenger DNA — using Emotion, Relevance, and Difference to spark cultural impact, not just commerce .

Creative Solution

We built a movement, not a menu board.

“Love That Chicken from Popeyes” became the battle cry of a chicken counter-revolution — a strategy that made Popeyes impossible to ignore and unforgettable to experience.

Opening Day Spectacles

• Engineered lineups that wrapped around blocks
• Turned store openings into local cultural events
• Generated earned media before doors even opened

Provocative Out-of-Home

• Bold, personality-driven OOH that made competitors look timid
• Owned the spicy, unapologetic tone Popeyes is famous for

Cultural Infiltration

• Partnerships with the Toronto Raptors and Maple Leafs
• Embedded Popeyes into Canadian sports culture
• Inspired traditions (like Raptors pre-game Popeyes rituals)

Viral Product Theatre

• The legendary Chicken Sandwich launch
• “The List” pre-launch access campaign that built frenzy
• National sellouts, record lines, and culture-shaking buzz

Digital Takeover

• Social content that turned customers into evangelists
• Authentic, scrappy, personality-driven storytelling
• Fans spreading the “spicy gospel” organically

This wasn’t QSR marketing.
This was a cultural insurgency.

Results

📈 From 20 to nearly 400 locations
🥇 One of the fastest QSR expansions in Canadian history
🍗 Chicken Sandwich launch: +184M impressions & 760,000 sold in 7 days
🔥 Transformed from unknown to national phenomenon
🏆 Competitive displacement in key markets
💬 Popeyes Canada became a social and cultural force

Category Takeaway

Popeyes didn’t win by outspending the giants.
They won by outthinking them.

By turning every opening into a celebration and every product launch into an event, Popeyes rewrote the rules of QSR marketing — claiming the throne through culture, energy, and soul.

The lesson for food & beverage marketers?
Market share isn’t earned through cautious, incremental moves.
It’s seized through cultural disruption.

That’s how underdogs become kings.