For fans of the spicy condiment, Sriracha, there’s only one word that needs to be said to pique their interest. And that word is Sriracha.

For fans of the spicy condiment, Sriracha, there’s only one word that needs to be said to pique interest. And that word is “Sriracha." So we replaced just about every word of a traditional press release, radio script, online film script, Wendy’s restaurant signage and Wendys.com with the word “Sriracha.” We even got Kristian Nairn, famous for only saying the word, “Hodor,” as his character Hodor on the hit HBO series, Game of Thrones to tweet throughout our launch date using only the word “Sriracha."

Wendy’s digital program generated 124.8 million impressions against a net reach of 45.9 million consumers. In proprietary research metrics, Nielsen found a 14-point lift in message recall, with 88 percent of those exposed correctly linking the message to Wendy’s. And Millward Brown found that our program drove an Awareness Index of nine versus the QSR norm of four, with 48 percent of those surveyed making a special trip to try the sandwich. In the end, though, sales are the true metric by which we are measured, right? In that regard, our Sriracha program drove an increase in restaurant sales of more than 4 percent against a yearly trend of roughly 2.5 percent. Results like those had both the client and the agency saying “Sriracha! Sriracha! Sriracha!”

Wendy’s has invested heavily in methods to create and tap into target audiences beyond traditional demographics. While those may be necessary for media buys, our planning and communication strategies look for more relevant ways to cluster diverse customer groups — from moment segmentation to affinity groups that have formulated “in the wild.” Sriracha lovers fall into that latter category. It takes very little effort to uncover that true Sriracha lovers have an illogical passion for the sauce. They get license plates. They dress up as Sriracha for Halloween. They get tattoos. They carry their own bottles from restaurant to restaurant so they are never without. It’s not just a sauce they love — it’s very much a part of who they are. We also found that nothing captured their attention quite like hearing the word Sriracha. It was almost as if Sriracha was the only thing we needed to say.

Sriracha is an ingredient that has become a global phenomenon. At Wendy’s, we’ve been successful at finding products that appeal to a large audience, and then making that audience feel as if we are speaking exclusively to them. Combine that strategy with an audience of digital natives, and it became clear that digital would be key to our program’s success. Now, when it comes to Sriracha, most QSRs treat it simply as a sauce. But Wendy’s took Sriracha love to a whole new level and created a chicken sandwich infused with Sriracha flavor — from the Sriracha aioli to the Sriracha bun to a never-before-seen Sriracha jack cheese. We knew it would be the sandwich to protect Wendy’s position in the spicy space while satisfying Sriracha lovers who previously thought it would be impossible to get enough.