The marketing genius behind popular Popeyes and Burger King social-media stunts reveals the secrets to going viral – News Nation USA
Alison Brod
Alison Brod Marketing + Communications
With roots in beauty PR, Alison Brod might seem to be an unlikely champion of fast food. But her 30-year-old New York firm, Alison Brod Marketing + Communications, has become known for viral campaigns for fast food and packaged goods.
Beauty where Brod still has a vast client base has been a great training ground for viral marketing, she said. People dont realize how innovative beauty is. Its science-based. Its always harnessed influencers. It sees an enormous number of launches just like fast food.
After promoting the chicken wars for Popeyes in 2020, Brod launched a Piece Offering this year, sending a million chicken nuggets to rival brands and generating a billion impressions. When research indicated customers love iced coffee in winter, the agency created a bread bowl-shaped glove for Panera Bread designed to hold a cold drink. The glove vaulted from social media to the Today show, generating 2.3 billion impressions and causing a spike in the brands coffee subscriptions sales.
Such campaigns break through because theyre grounded in old-fashioned marketing, Brod said. Its easy to come up with a stunt thats shocking. Its much more difficult to drive people to buy, she said.
To shape creative campaigns, Brod and her team use analytics, consumer research, traditional media, influencer relations, and branding. I look to hire social people not social-media people, who are sometimes the least engaged, she said.
Brod shared these insights behind some of her firms campaigns:
Alison Brod Marketing + Communications
Unlike some agencies, Brod makes traditional media channels a strategic part of viral campaigns. In the old days, influencers would pick up on what media covered. Now, its reversed. Once something blows up on social media, mainstream outlets pick it up. We call it hijacking the news.
As a result, ABMC campaigns that launched on social get valuable coverage in still-weighty national media outlets like People, USA Today, and Today. And in what may be the ultimate pop-culture tribute, six ABMC campaigns this year have earned shout-outs from SNL and late-night hosts like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel. Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon touted Paneras bread glove, for example.
When Kraft Macaroni & Cheese wanted to promote updated natural flavors and colors, ABMC worked with cult ice-cream maker Van Leeuwen to make a mac-and-cheese-flavored ice cream that became a viral sensation and a media smash. Finding the right partner and a product people would crave was critical. More importantly, the social and media frenzy accomplished Krafts messaging aims.
Along with natural, we wanted to remind people about Kraft Mac & Cheese in summer months. It was one of our biggest campaigns in terms of impressions, and we achieved both messaging objectives, which wasnt easy, she says.
Alison Brod Marketing + Communications
After Popeyes ad agency conceived this years We Come in Piece tagline, the brand tapped Brod to promote it. She bought a million chicken nuggets from competitors using gift cards donated to charities to signal an end to the chicken wars. We always aim for a huge, crazy, fun visual, and then figure out how to whittle it into a snackable idea that comes across in a few words, she said.
The campaign hit a bullseye with Popeyes brand fans, who amped it even further. Popeyes is a Southern brand, with New Orleans-Southern hospitality in its DNA. We didnt want rivals to feel bad that we were crushing them. This campaign was the Southern Bless your heart moment, and we knew fans would get it.
Success doesnt always mean a billion impressions, Brod said. To boost Jet-Puffed marshmallows on National Sandwich Day, ABMC brokered a partnership with buzzy sandwich shop Alidoro. The result: A marshmallow-and-prosciutto-on-graham-cracker-bread sandwich that lifted Jet-Puffed into epicurean media and generated social attention among younger foodie influencers. The positive coverage from less-typical outlets delighted the client, Brod said.
This was less about impressions and more about quality, and it generated a lot of brand pride, she said.