Popeyes is at the forefront of culture and consistently inserts itself in moments that have people talking. PR was tasked with ongoing ideation that drives sales, penetrates culture and reaches target demographics, without many operational changes. Girl Dinner was a real-time response to a viral TikTok trend, designed to close the gap between brand recognition and unaided awareness and consideration amongst Gen Z and millennials especially. At a high level, Girl Dinner was created to drive immediate sales, change and enhance key consumer behaviors such as frequency and perception, and drive traffic and user engagement to digital channels. Additionally, the work aimed to highlight Popeyes as a cultural stalwart and tout its menu variety and food quality, while offering a consumer call to action, generating an abundance of national press coverage, and cementing the brand in pop culture.

When Girl Dinner began circulating on social media and making headlines, Popeyes quickly adjusted their digital presence by renaming the Sides Menu to Girl Dinner on their mobile app and website to capitalize on the conversation. At the time, no QSR brand had jumped in, allowing Popeyes to own the moment. Popeyes has a robust sides menu including mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, biscuits, cajun fries, and more, that when put together, can be a delicious meal on their own, vs. a sad box of crackers and cheese. Popeyes moved quickly with the news cycle - within just two days - and unveiled its own take on Girl Dinner while conversation was at its peak.

The idea tapped the power of TikTok and rising social media trends, and by bringing the conversation back to the platform where the conversation started (TikTok), Popeyes created relevance and resonance with their target audience.

Viral social trends are most-often birthed on TikTok, so PR regularly monitored the platform for rising trends that felt relevant and authentic to the Popeyes brand.

Girl Dinner, which is all about making a meal from a variety of sides, was a perfect fit for Popeyes whose culinary excellence applies to all its menu categories. Key messaging leaned into the “Girl Dinner” virality and how our offering brings more substance and flavor to the “snacky” TikTok trend.

Creating a Girl Dinner menu enabled the brand to converse with its Gen Z and millennial audience on a topic they were already talking about on the platform where the trend originated, driving authenticity and brand love.

PR distributed a key visual showcasing the Girl Dinner menu on the Popeyes website to journalists, producers and social media editors, while the brand published various assets on its owned channels as well.

The “Girl Dinner” trend began circulating on social media feeds and making headlines in the press in early July 2023, and Popeyes quickly hijacked this current cultural moment. “Girl Dinner” is a snacking, grazing or “hodge podge” dinner combination, driven by mostly Gen Z and millennials and is about taking servings of what are typically considered “sides” from the pantry or fridge to create a unique comfort meal. No QSR brand had jumped into the conversation, so Popeyes moved quickly with the news cycle and led the pack by unveiling its take on it while conversation was at its peak.

When Popeyes jumped on the trend, Girl Dinner had generated 24 million views on TikTok and numerous articles featuring the trend on top news sites including The New York Times and CNN. ​Unlike some lackluster Girl Dinner options such as a box of crackers and cheese, Popeyes offers real side offerings that, when put together, make a delicious meal that boasts its incredible Louisiana flavor and time-honored traditions.To bring this to life, Popeyes renamed its Sides menu on Popeyes.com and in the Popeyes app to “Girl Dinner.” The southern sides offered diners more flavor with culinary creations that when put together, create a delicious meal without the entrée at the center of it.

In the QSR industry, it’s often hard to make quick changes to national menus or change anything operationally on a national level. Franchisees must opt-in, employees have to be trained on any new addition or change and know how to respond to a consumer making the request. Often, the challenge for a QSR brand to quickly respond to something happening in culture is very difficult and why many brands simply don’t. In this case, Popeyes was able to navigate the obstacle of operations by working with the digital team to simply make naming changes in the app and on the menu. This pivot and strategy allowed for a quick turnaround and newsjacking with a budget of $0.

Once the name was changed across digital channels, PR pitched national and regional media and Popeyes amplified the menu on its owned channels. As a result, Girl Dinner took off, and the menu was active for the next three weeks, until the initial wave of the Girl Dinner frenzy died down.

Immediately, the digital business saw an 8% increase in app downloads, a 5% increase in side orders and 26% of all page views on the app were for side items, compared to the typical 10%. In addition, the Girl Dinner menu was the most viewed menu selection of the app, capturing 17% of all clicks. This program drove immediate awareness, excitement and action, as well as engagement with digital properties and actual purchase and conversion amongst the target demographic.

Historically, viral social media trends have a short window for brands to jump in and media to cover before the next trend comes along. By launching one day following the idea conception, PR inserted Popeyes into the Girl Dinner conversation at its peak.

Once the menu was live, PR immediately pitched far and wide across earned media channels in digital, print and broadcast across food, QSR trade, ad trade, general news, culture and lifestyle outlets to maximize visibility and reach. The news took off within a few hours and initial coverage served as a tool in feeding the news to other media outlets.

Despite Girl Dinner being a food-centric trend, its virality allowed the news to live outside just food verticals. Within 24 hours, Popeyes Girl Dinner resulted in 70 pieces of coverage and over 500 million impressions across outlets such as CNN, AdAge, CBSNews, Delish, QSRMag, and beyond.

Girl Dinner drove immediate awareness, excitement and action, engagement with digital properties and actual purchase/conversion among the target demo. The campaign garnered extensive press coverage, totaling over 1,000 press stories and over 2 billion impressions. Sentiment was overwhelmingly positive at 97% and the majority of stories included priority key messaging.

A high engagement rate of 35% on Popeyes' owned posts on TikTok also indicates strong audience interest, interaction with the content, and success in capturing consumer attention and driving awareness.

Girl Dinner allowed Popeyes to be seen as a brand that understands and participates in culture. This inspired real-time purchase and shifted immediate consumer action, and the sales, clicks and upticks in scoring showed that it moved Popeyes up in the consideration set. Girl Dinner proved to raise Popeyes net favorability and net promoter score; net favorability hit its peak at 58% during the two-week window of the Girl Dinner promotion, up from an average of 44% in the two weeks prior. The net promoter score peaked to 61% two days after the launch, when the social and media conversation was at its ultimate peak. The average NPS was 26% in the two weeks before.

While Popeyes doesn’t share sales metrics, the digital business saw an 8% increase in app downloads, 5% increase in side orders and 26% of all page views on