In 2021, American restaurants were facing an unparalleled shortage in chicken wings, one of the country’s most popular foods. Wingstop, a brand built on the mission of “serving the world flavor”, was faced with an unimaginable challenge - how do you keep the lights on when your business depends on wings?

Thanks to America’s preference for chicken breast, the overlooked chicken thigh was the one part of the supply not yet exhausted. Thighs were on 2% of menus in the U.S. whereas chicken wings were at 42%. With just weeks to act, Wingstop needed to transform its business away from selling wings and instead inspire people to try a new innovation from the brand - thighs.

Three primary objectives:

• Shift consumer demand from wings to thighs.

• Attract new customers to the brand.

• Drive cultural resonance by positioning Wingstop’s thighs as the solution to the chicken wing shortage.

As the industry crisis of the chicken wing shortage hit mainstream news, shock on the part of consumers quickly evolved into feeling the loss of not being able to have their favorite flavors. Fans had cravings for a food that they could not fulfill and were left feeling like they had no options.

By offering chicken thighs, a product Americans had less experience with but replicated the experience of chicken wings, Wingstop would be able to satiate their desire for the flavorful experience of the brand despite the shortage.

Wingstop took this niche product launch and turned it into a national story by spinning it into a brand launch. In eight weeks, Wingstop pivoted its business focus into an entirely new virtual ghost kitchen brand - “Thighstop”, creating an entirely new channel of commerce for Wingstop fans to engage with the flavors they love.

Research showed 86% of Wingstop visits are from a passionate segment we call flavor fans, who love Wingstop not primarily for wings, but the 11 iconic flavors they sauce them in. They are the primary driver of sales for product launches and the most vocal about their passion for Wingstop’s flavor. Uncovering this insight, our approach would focus on converting this core audience to a new product: Chicken Thighs.

Flavor fans felt the pain of the shortage through decreased quality and higher prices of wings. Desperate for a solution to satisfy their cravings, Wingstop designed thighs with this audience specifically in mind.

Because while Americans at large overlook the chicken thigh in favor of the wing, we knew from past product and sales data that if we could engage our core audience of “Flavor Fans” in trying thighs, they would activate the broader audience of wing eaters to follow suit.

Thighstop was a 360 hack on the Wingstop brand using thousands of ghost kitchens nationwide to create an entirely new channel to conduct commerce through. In days we updated our assets to turn any mention of “Wingstop” to “Thighstop”. To show how quickly we had pivoted, we designed a crude “Thigh” label and slapped it over any mention of wings on packaging, assets, and food trucks. Even our tagline, “Where Flavor Gets Its Wings” became, “Where Flavor Gets Its Thighs.”

Thighstop teamed up with a cultural icon and Wingstop franchisee, Rick Ross, to announce Thighstop’s arrival in a commercial running across TV, Cinema & Video . We partnered with TikTok influencers and media that aligned with our core “flavor fan” audience, earning their advocacy to drive purchase at scale.

To incentivize trial, Thighstop even hacked the National Chicken Wing day promotion and turned it into a national holiday for thighs.

The Thighstop brand and product launch created distinction for Wingstop in the category as an innovative restaurant leader who capitalized on a culturally relevant way to create demand around a product that historically had little demand. The brand was able to deliver on its mission of “serving the world flavor” when chicken wing fans needed us most.

Galvanizing the influential power of the “flavor fan” audience paid off as Thighstop was able to recruit new customers into the brand who had never been to Wingstop before.

•60% of people who purchased Thighstop via Doordash were new to the Wingstop brand.

Thighstop was seen as a digitally innovative marketing solution to solve both a business and human need. Thighstop helped to alleviate the immense cost pressure that franchise operators were facing.

•Increased sales by 10% year-over-year

•6.5 Billion earned media impressions

•Stock price increased 8% week of launch