The chicken's job: momentum

By Chloe Stromberg - Researcher, Marketing, Forrester

Interesting...  Yesterday we were talking about how pop-y viral campaigns like the chicken (you know which chicken) and Paris Hilton will become less important compared to campaigns that drive sustained support for a brand.

But today, Jeff Hicks of Crispin, Porter + Bogusky talked more about the chicken's job.  The chicken was brought in not just to increase brand exposure -- it had to get attention to truly disrupt the BK brand's inertia.  The chicken's job was to create momentum by generating interest and anticipation about what the brand will do next. 

Often, we use the chicken as a general example of word-of-mouth, but I'd argue that the chicken's job is much more specialized...  The chicken is the guy you bring in when things are dire for the brand.  He's the clean up artist.  It ain't pretty, but he gets the job done. 

Comments

[Greg Johnson]

Just to build on the point with a great quote from Jeff: "There are brands that have momentum and brands that don't. Our job is to create that momentum." It's a really nice summation of the changes in the advertising arena, and elevates the industry pretty comfortably beyond the days of the brand promise.

I also was really intrigued by the extent to which CP+B is moving into the product design space. If an agency is doing their job well, they're getting pretty intimate with the consumer mindset. Using all of that knowledge simply as the foundation of the main idea in a brief for a :30 second spot would be a travesty; using it to help grow a client's business is a much higher calling. Hats off to them!