Popeyes 12-Hour Drive-Thru used consumer insights to expand our target audience and showcase our culinary credibility. We did this by telling our 12-hour chicken marination story in a memorable way that inspired fans to spend 12 hours with our brand and earned us $1.5 million in media impressions.

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 something big and memorable 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.

For this outdoor installation, we took a menu order board that you’d normally find 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.

And seeing a random menu board in the middle of nowhere got people’s attention—even if they weren’t making the full drive.

For those who were driving, billboards and even cheering crowds along the way told them how much longer their chicken had to marinate.

Popeyes wanted to expand their core audience of older fast-food fans who love Louisiana and to attract a younger group that’s more digitally oriented and into pop culture.

We also wanted to differentiate ourselves from other fast-food by highlighting our culinary story. Unlike other fast-food chicken, Popeyes is marinated in Louisiana seasonings for 12 hours.

Two additional insights helped us reach the right idea:

1. Drive-thrus are a fast-food staple, but Popeyes flagship in New Orleans, Louisiana, didn’t have one.

2. Americans love road trips, and New Orleans was a top destination for the year.

So, to showcase Popeyes 12-hour marination, we created a 12-Hour Drive-Thru that actually required road trip to get your food.

Popeyes 12-Hour Drive-Thru took place in November 2018. Hundreds applied on Popeyes.com to be part of this outdoor installation/experience.

In total, 18 fans made the drive, placing orders at the remote menu board we placed in Fort Stockton, Texas, and driving 850 miles to the Popeyes flagship in New Orleans, Louisiana, while we marinated their chicken.

Billboards and signage were placed along the drive in Fort Stockton, Texas; San Angelo, Texas; San Antonio, Texas; Houston, Texas; Beaumont, Texas; the Texas-Louisiana border; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

To get fans to make the drive, a PR and social media campaign targeting fast-food fans throughout the United States was implemented during October 2018. Paid and organic content was posted to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

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

This outdoor 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.