Popeyes: fried chicken favourite lands in Birmingham

Popeyes, the American fried chicken brand, first arrived in the UK in 2022 - bringing its distinct Louisiana flavour and much-loved New Orleans style menu.

That year, we began supporting the chain’s Midlands’ openings and summer 2024 marked our biggest launch yet - the opening of Popeyes’ flagship restaurant on Birmingham New Street. Our PR campaigns for the foodie brand are always big, bold and full of flavour - just like the Popeyes menu - but this year’s had to be better than ever.

Comprising media and influencer relations and a key launch activation, our targeted regional communications plan was designed to raise brand awareness, drive footfall and place Popeyes firmly on the Birmingham map.

APPROACH

To make some noise ahead of the opening, we partnered with local legend, Lady Leshurr, to create a bespoke rap celebrating Popeyes’ long-awaited Birmingham restaurant. We launched the partnership with a teaser video, followed by the unveiling of the full rap and exclusive on-site images - resulting in 145k reach and 185k total video plays - ensuring everyone was talking about Popeyes and its imminent arrival in the city.

Launching the Birmingham restaurant with a bang, we worked with Vish Popat as our influencer partner, to capture fun and engaging vox pops with guests in the iconic Popeyes opening day queue - amassing 52k views across TikTok and Instagram and 49k total reach. This was supported by complimentary influencer experiences, resulting in 18 pieces of social coverage.

To keep the buzz going, we issued three key press releases throughout the campaign, securing 60 pieces of coverage in regional titles such as Birmingham Live and Express & Star.

HIGHLIGHTS

Designed to serve up a tasty mix of creative comms activity and a headline-grabbing launch, our PR campaign successfully engaged foodies in Brum (and beyond) with fans queueing for over 15 hours from 7.30pm the night before launch day.

We secured a total of 86 pieces of earned coverage, with a whopping reach of over 109million across all activity. Our soft launch and gifting activity with regional influencers resulted in 152k total reach from social coverage, while our complimentary hot food drops got even more people talking, with live on-air and social mentions from BBC Radio WM and Capital FM.

Want to make some noise around your brand? Get in touch!