Fast food is a category known for fun, culturally relevant work that drives awareness and grows brands over time. With Krystal, we had to spark sales now while also making big strides in cultural relevance and bringing in a new growth target. It wasn’t enough to change sentiment, we needed to turn a losing product into the hallmark of a brand and sales turnaround. Oh, and we had to do it with a chicken sandwich years after the end of the chicken wars as a regional brand going up against some of the biggest players in the world.

For 90 years, Krystal has been known in the southern U.S. for signature bite-sized food, anchored by steamed hamburger sliders.

While there’s a lot of love for their signature Krystal slider, their Chik (a slider-sized chicken sandwich) had been cost-engineered into an inferior product and one of their worst performing offerings.

The goal of the campaign was simple: name and launch a new line of premium chicken sandwiches while also establishing a new brand positioning and brand tone for a multicultural target. Oh, and stop a 40 week streak of negative total store comp sales for the brand. And one last thing, the new owner of Krystal wanted the brand to be talked about on the Breakfast Club. All without a national broadcast spend or physical footprint outside of the Southeast US.

And do it all years after the Chicken Sandwich wars when everyone already has a favorite chicken sandwich.

Instead of fighting to be their new favorite chicken sandwich, we just asked America to be their Side Chik.

We know, we get it. There’s been a lot of new chicken sandwiches coming out lately - and most people probably already have a favorite. But that doesn’t mean they have to stay loyal. Because sometimes something new comes along that you find yourself attracted to beyond your control.

We asked America to cheat on their favorite chicken sandwiches with help from Brittany Renner – a side chick expert and outspoken influencer who’s known for controversial opinions on loyalty. We played up the double entendre everywhere we could and even named the new sandwiches “Side Chiks”. Instead of arguing quality, bragging bona fides, or hard-selling our sandwich, we just offered something different from their go-to chicken and said, “Keep your main chick if you want. We just wanna be your SideChik.”

You think we ran a campaign called “Side Chik” without robust strategy? You’re crazy.

TARGET:

Existing audience: Older, majority white, suburban

Growth Target: Young, Diverse, Urban-dwelling

Now, you may be thinking “these two targets have everything in common, and if there’s one thing we know about Americans, it’s that they’re unified in their views.” but surprise! They’re very different.

DATA GATHERING

Primary research verified that both targets would NOT believe a “quality” story from Krystal after years of declining product quality.

Secondary research verified that even with a flood of new chicken sandwiches there was still interest in new offerings.

And concept-testing showed a 71% Like/Love rating for the “Side Chik” concept among our two targets who can agree on almost nothing.

APPROACH:

Instead of fighting to be their new favorite on quality, we Trojan-Horsed our way into America’s mouths with a little humor and a wink.

The campaign ran from 3 October to 4 December with a push in TV, OLV, OOH, PR, and social content. With a smaller media buy than our competition, we leaned into PR opportunities around Brittany Renner embracing the “side chick” narrative around her and prepared for real-time response opportunities around the brand’s bold stance, too.

The campaign elicited a huge response with people capturing and posting the videos and billboards to social where the conversation took on a life of its own.

In social, we sent influencers SIDE CHIK COVERUP SPRAYS, real perfumes that smelled like our competitor’s chicken sandwiches (to hide the scent of your Krystal Side Chik). And after spotting organic moments of fan’s telling their favorite chicken sandwiches they’d been cheating with us, we started collecting and reposting them as #SideChikConfessions.

The campaign tripled Side Chik sales and ended 40 weeks of negative comp sales including a TOTAL STORE comp sales increase of 4% with record sales (+12%) in key DMAs.

Culturally, it was an even bigger win. Even though Krystal is a regional QSR, we punched up to a national level with earned coverage in major publications including Complex, BET, Vibe, The Source, and the Breakfast Club.

People organically recorded and posted the spots on Twitter, Instagram, and Tik-Tok where the conversation took on a life of its own. And in an unspeakable act of non-best practices, we posted the launch ad as an organic post on Instagram and Twitter where it remains the brand’s top post of all-time on both platforms. In total we had 4,317,216 total engagements and 78% positive net sentiment on social. And 739,573,016 total impressions with over $50 million in earned media.

Feels like it might help to know who Brittany Renner is. Brittany is a former Division 1 soccer player who’s become a well known fitness model and influencer famous for her alleged and confirmed relationship with high-profile celebrities and athletes. Her book, JUDGE THIS COVER, detailed her alleged romantic history with celebrities and pro athletes like Colin Kaepernick, Drake, and Ben Simmons(under pseudonyms). She’s also an outspoken advocate for embracing your own power and using the narrative the world puts on you to your own advantage.