Popeyes chicken is marinated in Louisiana seasonings for 12 hours. That’s what makes us different from our competitors.

But nobody knew it—even after years of TV ads mentioning our 12-hour marination.

So, we needed a big and memorable stunt to get people’s attention and make this fact stick with them.

Popeyes 12-Hour Drive-Thru was the first and only fast-food drive-thru to start in one state and end 850 miles away in another state.

It had to be that long because Popeyes marinates its chicken that long. That’s what makes it so good.

We took a menu order board normally found at one of our restaurants and installed it 12 hours away from our flagship location so that fans would have to drive for as long as their chicken marinated. It was the perfect way to show them just how long 12 hours really is. Along the way, billboards and even cheering crowds told them how much longer their chicken had to marinate.

In a world of six-second ads, this activation pushed the boundaries of consumer engagement, compelling the industry to rethink how long people are willing to spend with your brand as long as you give them a unique experience.

Popeyes wanted to expand their core audience and attract a younger group that’s more digitally oriented and into pop culture. So, we focused on publications that attract this kind of audience, like Us Weekly. We also wanted to differentiate ourselves from other fast-food by highlighting our culinary story. So, we also targeted food media, like Food & Wine and Eater.

To capture PR assets, we chose seven fans make the drive early and documented their entire journey, creating video and still images for the news media to use.

For Popeyes 12-Hour Drive-Thru, we took a digital menu board normally found at Popeyes and installed it along a desolate stretch of the West Texas highway. The board really worked, allowing people to place orders through a talk box, just like at a regular drive-thru.

Then fans drove 12 hours to the flagship Popeyes in New Orleans, Louisiana, while we marinated their chicken. Along the way, we let them know how much longer they—and their chicken—had to go with billboards in throughoutTexas and Louisiana. In San Antonio, a drivign billboard surprised fans. In Houston, crowds cheered on drivers from a freeway overpass.

12-Hour Drive-Thru launched in October 2018 with a PR and social media campaign targeting fast-food fans throughout the United States. Paid and organic content was posted to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

Hundreds applied on Popeyes.com to be part of this experience, which took place in November 2018.

Eighteen fans completed Popeyes 12-Hour Drive-Thru and millions followed their journeys, learning that Popeyes marinates its chicken 12 very long hours.

This campaign got tons of media coverage from Creativity and Adweek to Us Weekly and Food & Wine. The campaign earned 150.6 million media impressions ($1.5 million in paid-media value).

In addition, the 12-Hour Drive-Thru website generated 880,000 impressions, reaching 588,000 unique users. Hundreds applied to make the drive.

Through paid social media channels, the campaign delivered 8.7 million additional impressions, reaching 5.7 million unique users.