Popeyes chooses Gut Miami as its agency of record

Popeyes has picked an official creative partner, and it’s not the one behind last year’s successful “... y’all good?” tweet. The revitalized fried chicken and seafood chain selected Gut Miami as its new creative agency of record, leading advertising, creative campaigns and social media management. Popeyes rocketed to unheard-of levels of awareness and sales in 2019 with campaigns from Gut Miami and GSD&M promoting its $3.99 chicken sandwich. Now, after months of running work from both agencies, it is going with Gut. Popeyes had previously worked with GSD&M since 2008. Gut, an independent agency started by Anselmo Ramos and Gastón Bigio in 2018, kicked off its relationship with Popeyes with the “Sweet Dixie Kitchen” campaign, which introduced the fried chicken sandwich in August 2019. Gut also did “Open Sunday,” which announced the sandwich’s return in November. And Gut cooked up the social-media-driven effort in December, showing the sandwich duct-taped to a wall—a riff on the banana that sold for $120,000 at Art Basel—as well as the January release of Popeyes uniforms online after people suggested they were similar to Ivy Park, Beyoncé’s line with Adidas. But the piece of marketing that most resonated throughout the fried chicken sandwich craze was the “... y’all good?” response to Chick-fil-A on Twitter, which came from Popeyes’ longtime agency partner GSD&M. After the chicken sandwich rapidly sold out, it was GSD&M that worked on an apology campaign that began in late August and a bring-your-own-bun campaign in September. And years earlier, GSD&M introduced Annie, the Popeyes spokeswoman character, to help showcase the chain’s Louisiana roots. Buoyed by the fried chicken sandwich, Popeyes U.S. same-store sales rose 13 percent last year, including a 37.9 percent jump in the fourth quarter. Popeyes, in a statement, said it “had a successful partnership with creative agency GSD&M and is thankful for their amazing work and contributions to the brand.” Popeyes, which is owned by Restaurant Brands International, pointed out that GSD&M did work for the brand that won at Cannes, The Clios and Art Director’s Club. Bruno Cardinali, head of marketing for Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen North America since 2019, added that Popeyes is “proud of the amazing results produced by both teams.” Still, it’s going with just one of them from here on out. "They’re fast and, most importantly, they’re brave," Gut's Ramos said of Popeyes, in a statement. "We have a situation that any agency would die for: a great brand, great products, and great clients.” GSD&M said it wishes Popeyes continued success. “It’s been a helluva run with Popeyes. We took them from niche brand to pop culture icon,” Tom Hamling, GSD&M group creative director, said in a statement. “The Chicken Sandwich Wars happened because of a great product, a killer strategy and the perfect tweet. The past year was about as much fun as it gets in this business and we are thankful the brand trusted us to lead it."

Popeyes chooses Gut Miami as its agency of record

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