Chick-Fil-A & Center stage platform

Get Your Customers To Camp out

Don't sell the chicken, love people

As the fastest-growing Quick Service Restaurant chain among the Top 10, Chick-fil-A passed McDonald’s in average store revenue and "Kid's Meal Appeal." They did it without price promotions, without discounting the chicken, and without doing any business on Sundays.

With the longest lines in fast food, the "Raving Fans" of Chick-fil-A are known to camp out the night before every grand opening.

What caused this sudden rise by a fast food restaurant chain? Our history with Chick-fil-A has proven to us that this chicken store is a leader in gaining Irrational Advocacy because they built emotional engagement beyond the chicken sandwich.

It all started with a single client request: "Don't sell the chicken, love people. The chicken will sell itself."

This was our assignment, and what we literally wrote on the creative brief. From this assignment, a platform for loving people was born.

Today, the Chick-fil-A brand enjoys the fastest-growing position and highest same-store sales volumes among the Top 10 QSR chains. As Chick-fil-A became the leader at $3.4 million per store, McDonald's moved to the No. 2 spot, not only in kids-meal appeal, but in sales, as well. Recently, Forbes named Chick-fil-A the fast food chain that holds the strongest emotional connection to its customers: No. 1 in brand intimacy. When a brand provides remarkable value to their consumers, consumers pay them back with more than cash transactions.

ROAD TO RAVING FANS

Building a brand in social media is not about what a brand says, but what it does. So, we worked with Chick-fil-A to do something remarkable. Instead of making kids meal toys that promote the latest Disney movie release, we packed kids meals with object lessons for children.

Take, for example, “Surprise It Forward” gift cards. DBA designed these “toys” to teach respect for elders. An online video about a child giving a Chick-fil-A branded thank you card to an elderly neighbor drove 4.3 million views on Facebook, with some of the most likes of any branded video for the QSR industry that year.

The 13 thousand shares and 58 thousand likes in response to this meme with 4.3 million views placed this meme among the top performing social posts in the fast-food category for the year.

Moms liked and loved the posts, sharing with comments like, "Love it. Thank you for your compassion. And Chick-fil-A, don't forget the chicken."

STORYTELLING STARTS WITH STORY LISTENING

Discovery starts with understanding consumers. For example, most millennial parents say if they had an extra 15 minutes a day, they would spend that time with family. So, we dreamed with our client and helped Chick-fil-A explore ideas to encourage family time, such as “Daddy-Daughter Date Nights,” "Military Appreciation Nights," "Stuffed Animal Sleepover" and “Family Dinner and a Mystery Nights."

The consumer posts in social media, with their candle-lit tables and fast food adventures, outpaced every other quick service restaurant online.

“Our focus is on providing a remarkable experience that brings families together.” – David Salyers, Marketing Director at Chick-fil-A.

Our efforts were recognized with a Netty Award.

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Services Completed:

Social Media Strategy

We’ll create a social media strategy based on your goals, but we go beyond that. Content creation, post management, influencer relationships and more are ready for you.

Examples

CAMPAIGN
STRATEGY

Thinking things through, outside the box. That’s just how we do things, and that’s how we’ll help you do everything.

Examples

Papa John's Pizza Adbox

QUICK DELIVERY TURNAROUND

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Kasasa Adbox

Collaboration Breeds Innovation

See Case Study

LET'S
WORK

Do you have a branding, advertising communications or digital marketing need? Please tell us about it, and a consultant will respond within minutes to set up a no-obligation conversation.

PHONE NUMBER

248.601.5222

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