Founded in New Orleans in 1972, Popeyes has 50 years of history and culinary tradition. The brand loved by celebs like Beyonce and Megan Thee Stallion launched in the UK in 2021 and has been expanding rapidly ever since. Muckle Media was tasked with launching PopeyesÒ 12th restaurant opening in 2023 and its first in Scotland.
Popeyes arrived in the UK in a big way. The London Stratford restaurant is the busiest in the world and the Rotherham drive-thru opening was the biggest launch globally, so the standard was high and the brief was clear: Popeyes needed to land in Scotland with a bang.
Muckle Media was tasked with creating a cultural moment. To announce the Barrhead restaurant opening and show up in Scotland in a big way, ensuring everyone was talking about Popeyes Barrhead.
Inspired by the work of Rufus Harley – the first jazz musician to play the bagpipes – we set to work giving the famed Louisiana spirit a Scottish twist. Ahead of the opening day, we recreated a traditional New Orleans Mardi Gras carnival float in one of Glasgow’s busiest streets – Argyle Street – and fused the soulful sound of legendary brass band, The Brass Funkeys with Scotland’s national piper, Louise Marshall to create a unique sound that drew the crowds and headlines. Giving away 1000 of Popeyes famous chicken sandwiches to passers by helped to grow the hype ahead of launch day.
Alongside the carnival float activation, we executed a targeted media and influencer campaign. Top tier target Media including Glasgow Live , Barrhead News and the Scottish Sun were invited along to press previews to get a first look at the site, try their hand at making their own chicken sandwich and were given an opportunity to interview Popeyes senior management team. Local foodie influencers including @Glasgowscranz and @Glasgowfoodgeek were offered exclusive early access to the restaurant to try out menu favourites and create their own content to share with their followers.
All activity was underpinned with a series of carefully crafted media materials to drive media coverage before, during and after launch.
People queued for a record-breaking 18.5 hours to be the first to try Popeyes in Scotland, making it the longest queue time of any Popeyes opening.
Over 80 pieces of press coverage was secured in titles including STV News, Clyde 1, Forth 1, Heart Scotland, The Herald, The Scottish Sun, Glasgow Times, Daily Record, Scottish Daily Express and Glasgow World.
Influencer posts reached over 1.4m views across Instagram and Tiktok and at one point the queue got so big that local traffic police had to issue a traffic warning asking drivers to ‘follow the pecking order’!
