Soon after Popeyes launched its first-ever Chicken Sandwich, a twitter feud with rival Chick-fil-A (#ChickenWars) sparked intense interest and sales that were 16 times higher than projected. Popeyes sold out of its entire 10-week sandwich supply in 8 days.

We knew the sandwich would take a while to restock but didn’t want to let this PR moment go or give up the fight. We wanted to keep differentiating our brand from the competition and keep people talking about us, not Chick-fil-A.

So we had to respond in a way that would reach our target audience of active, on-the-go fast-food lovers who use a lot of social media and stay constantly glued to their phones.

Popeyes didn’t have the chicken filets needed to make sandwiches, but they had plenty of chicken tenders. All that was missing was the bun.

So we created a BYOB offer—Bring Your Own Bun.

BYOB usually stands for "bring your own beer" or "bring your own bottle." It's a common policy for American restaurants to allow people to bring in their own drinks, especially restaurants that don't sell alcohol.

Since we were suddenly a restaurant without buns, we just twisted that BYOB phrase a little.

When Popeyes launched it's Chicken Sandwich, Chick-fil-A dominated with more than half the market. We wanted to chip away at that but knew it wouldn’t happen if we simply followed their lead.

Chick-fil-A is more well known for customer service and conservative views than flavor. It's a wholesome, earnest brand that doesn’t joke about itself.

Popeyes couldn't be more different. We take our food seriously, but not ourselves.

The #ChickenWars proved that this humor and attitude played well on social media and appealed to our target audience of young, multicultural fast food fans who are highly active on Twitter and Instagram and never go anywhere without their phones.

So to keep the momentum going, we did the exact opposite of what Chick-fil-A would have. We poked fun at ourselves and showed unhappy customers who really just wanted our chicken sandwich.

Soon after the chicken sandwich sellout, we launched a video on social media that told customers not to worry about it because we have a new BYOB (Bring Your Own Bun) offer.

In the video skeptical customers react as they realize that this “new product” is just three tenders, which has always been on Popeyes menu. Tongue-in-cheek art cards talk back to these customers (and the audience) encouraging them to try bringing in a bun and making a sandwich using Popeyes tenders. In the tone, it’s clear this is all a joke. Finally, a customer asks the only question that really matters, “Seriously, when are you getting the sandwich though?”

With just these few, unpaid social media placements, we let our fans and the press do their thing to amplify and scale this conversation 100% organically.

BYOB was a joke.

But people really did it. And it kept them talking.

This video got 1.5 billion impressions worth $17 million in earned media.

And Popeyes Word-of-Mouth score hit a record high (YouGov).

Plus there was one bonus result: “We started to sell a lot more tenders,” CMO Fernando Machado told Brandweek. “We were even afraid of running out of tenders too.”