- Popeyes selected McKinney as creative agency of record after an RFP process, according to a press release. The first campaign work from the partnership is due late spring.
- The agency shall be chargeable for brand strategy, creative development and inventive production across all channels, tapping into its social, digital experience and inventive capabilities.
- McKinney won the pitch by presenting insights about consumer love for the brand and its food and can leverage the brand’s New Orleans roots and pay homage to town’s culture in its creative.
Popeyes has chosen McKinney as its AOR after first appointing the agency on an interim basis back in February while it went through the RFP process. For the previous three years, Gut had handled creative for the Restaurant Brands International chain and helped launch its category-changing chicken sandwich in 2019.
The agency, a part of the Cheil Worldwide agency network, will handle brand strategy and the event and production of creative across all channels. In a press release, Popeyes called out the agency’s knowledge for the food and beverage category, understanding of the franchise landscape and talent to connect to culture while driving business outcomes.
“McKinney comes to us with an incredible depth of restaurant experience and a fame for producing creative that helps drive the business,” said Popeyes CMO Jeff Klein within the press release. “We imagine this modification will help us speed up the following stage of growth and create a world-class experience for our guests.”
The first campaign work from the agency is due in late spring and can leverage the chain’s roots in and culture of New Orleans which have steadily been the topic of its marketing efforts.
The account shall be led out of McKinney’s Durham office, with support from offices in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Phoenix. The 300-plus strong agency has recently picked up AOR assignments from Blue Diamond Almonds and Puma Running, with project work for AB InBev’s Natural Light brand.
While its 2019 chicken sandwich launch helped kick off the so-called “chicken sandwich wars,” Popeyes has not been able to sustain the expansion and its marketing has cooled since a 2021 collaboration with rapper Megan Thee Stallion. Popeyes saw same-store sales grow by 3.8% in essentially the most recent quarter, but growth stabilized at just 1.5% within the U.S.
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