Billboard campaign takes wing at Chick-fil-A

Nation's Restaurant News, August 28, 1995 by Robin Lee Allen

ATLANTA -- Chick-fil-A is stopping traffic with a billboard-advertising campaign that -- by poking fun at its competitors -- is jamming airwaves as well.

Employing huge, eyecatching three-dimensional rubber chickens, cars and, most recently, two cows painting the message "Eat Mor Chickin," the billboards have become live-remote sites for radio stations, business stories for local newspapers and landmarks for helicopter-traveling traffic reporters.

In other words, free advertising.

"We've never gotten this kind of interest in our advertising from the press or the customers," observed Chick-fil-A spokesman Jerry Johnston. "A lot of people call in and say it's funny."

And that was exactly the intention. With a limited budget -- especially compared with other sandwich-segment players like McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's -- the attention-grabbing billboards are a low-cost way to raise consumers' Chick-fil-A awareness in markets where people spend a lot of time in their cars.

"We're not able to out-spend people in the marketplace, so what we do must have impact," said Greg Ingram, Chick-fil-A's manager of creative services.

Located along major roadways in Atlanta, Dallas, Birmingham, Ala., Columbia, S.C., and Charlotte, N.C. -- markets where Chick-fil-A is expanding and television spots can run into six figures -- the billboards cost less than $50,000 each to produce and maintain over a one-year period, Ingram said. They also can be moved to other locations.

"It's a very efficient medium because they are getting out there and reaching many people, which brings the cost per thousand down," explained Jim Sexton, account supervisor at the Dallas-based Richards Group, which created the campaign.

"They are maximizing media in the outdoors and getting PR out of it as well."

The Richards Group won the account last year with an idea that would later become the first billboard -- a 48-foot-long rubber chicken with the message "If it's not Chick-fil-A, it's a joke."

"That they are the inventor of the chicken sandwich is their point of differentiation in the marketplace," Sexton said.

"The consumer research came back that they are the expert, innovative and very one-of-a-kind," he added. "As a result, the rubber chicken came out of the idea that if it's not Chick-fil-A, it's a hockey puck."

Next came two cars crashing through a billboard with the slogan "Visit a double-drive-thru." At night the taillights even glowed.

The newest billboard features two 20-foot cows, which are constructed of a coated and painted styrofoam material. The cows are shown painting a message. It is an obvious jab at hamburger competitors and reads "Eat Mor Chickin."

"Technically, while [Chick-fil-A is] reported as a chicken chain, it competes with the hamburger people for being a low-cost chicken product," Sexton noted. "So we wanted to keep the pressure on the burger people."

The cows' message is supplemented by a Chick-fil-A press release -- filed on the Internet -- quoting figures from the National Broiler Council showing increased chicken consumption. While the figures are real, the release is more an effort to create a news angle for reporters than it is an explanation of the existence of the billboard, Johnston admitted.

Preliminary brand awareness studies show the campaign is working, so Chick-fil-A officials are looking at more ideas, Ingram said. They also are considering creating supplemental promotional merchandise, he added.

Based in Atlanta, Chick-fil-A has more than 620 units in 32 states and Canada. While the majority of outlets are in malls, there are 75 freestanding stores and 25 drive-thru locations.