El Pollo Loco Launches “Chicken Wars” with Taste the Fire Challenge

Challenge:

Defend and maintain El Pollo Loco’s market share against competitor

With KFC coming out with its “version” of a grilled chicken recipe, El Pollo Loco needed to make a preemptive strike to defend and maintain its leadership position as the master of flame-grilled chicken. TRG launched the “Chicken Wars,” a traditional and digital campaign challenging consumers to “Taste the Fire” and see what “flame-grilled” really means.

Key Strategies:

Fire up online chatter around the Taste the Fire Challenge and fuel the viral flames

• Challenged not only consumers but KFC to taste the difference of flame-grilled chicken in the Taste the Fire Challenge through an aggressive SEO campaign and Interactive News Release with a call to action, directing consumers to dial El Pollo Loco’s CEO
• Posted latest news, cheeky ad campaign spots as well as viral videos calling out KFC executives’ anonymous calls with newly-created YouTube channel and Twitter page
• Encouraged pass along emails for El Pollo Loco fans to send their friends for various initiatives throughout the campaign
• Garnered coverage of coupons, event as well as viral videos on coupon/discount, mommy, and food blogs with extensive blogger outreach
• Blanketed airwaves with Taste the Challenge promotion featuring flame-grilled taste and the free chicken event all over El Pollo Loco’s top markets’ TV stations

Results:

Dominated the Internet with Chicken Wars

• Outreached to bloggers bolstered YouTube views of  videos totaling more than 153,000 views at press time
• Grew Twitter followers from zero to more than 1,600 in less than two months using  trivia, special offers, promotions and giveaways
• Secured more than the industry average with the Interactive News Release reaching an estimated 172 million page views and 72 hits
• Ranked as the second hottest trend on Google Search that day (April 22, 2009)
• Garnered print coverage totaling more than 8 million impressions including Wall Street Journal
• Accumulated more than 5.8 million impressions in El Pollo Loco’s top 7 TV markets
• Secured more than 1,150 blog hits including The Consumerist, L.A. Times Business Blog, AOL’s Wallet Pop, Serious Eats and Foodie in Disguise
• Won kudos from advertising and marketing industry experts such as PR Buzz and  QSR Web for quickly taking advantage of KFC missteps and skillful use of social media