Male Gen-Z, Millennial Media Opps: Popeyes adds wings to menu amid digital spend increases (Score 93)

Sales lead: Reach out now to help Popeyes promote its new offering. 

• Popeyes just permanently added wings to its menu after a successful test run.
• The wings retail at $5.99 for a 6-piece and come in Honey BBQ, Roasted Garlic Parmesan, Signature Hot, Ghost Pepper, and Sweet 'N Spicy. 
• DMs believe adding wings will help separate itself from its competitors. 
• Popeyes launched a campaign to advertise the wings with a new tagline, "We don't make sense, we make chicken." 

Popeye's target demographic: Gen-Z & millennials with a male skew

The company will likely:

• Ramp up ad spend to promote the wings
• Continue adding new products
• Make additional agency changes (hired McKinney in April)

Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)

• YTD spend: Popeyes spent around $92m on national TV ads YTD, a slight (4%) decrease from $95.5m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend dropped slightly (3%) from $105m in 2021 to $101.6m in 2022. 
• Ad programming: It placed ads during programming such as NFL Football, NBA Basketball, College Football, SportsCenter, and Friends. 

Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)

• YTD spend: Popeyes spent nearly $18.7m on digital display ads YTD, a 13% increase from $16.6m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2022. 
• YTD data: 2.3b impressions via Facebook (34%), YouTube (33%), Instagram (30%), Twitter (2%), and desktop video (1%).
• 2021-2022 spend: Full-year spend fell by 26% from $21.1m in 2021 to $15.6m in 2022.
• Ad location: It placed 100% of these ads directly onto sites such as instagram.com, youtube.com, facebook.com, twitter.com, and draftkings.com.  

Additional channel insights  

• Popeyes also invests in OOH, radio, and local broadcast. 
• Top podcasts sponsored: Stuff You Should Know, The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend, Cold Case Files, and The Dan Patrick Show. 

Agency analysis:

• Opportunity: Popeyes picked up McKinney earlier this year, so reach out to see if it plans on reviewing any other accounts. 
• Current roster:
  • PHD USA: media buying & planning 
  • Alison Brod Public Relations: PR AOR
  • McKinney: creative AOR
  • City Eventions: experiential