Church's Texas Chicken

Transforming a Legacy Brand to Drive Engagement and Growth

Challenge

This iconic Texas brand – which recently celebrated its 70th birthday – knew its generous portions and irresistible flavors would always delight, whether in its home state or at its 800 nationwide franchises. But while Church’s was confident its down-home flavors and delectable offerings were a hit, it needed to stand out in a crowded space and dominate the QSR chicken sandwich wars. The company came to Material to jump start its digital strategy and reimagine the brand's presence for a younger generation of chicken lovers. Our goal was to update and unite the brand’s disparate digital platforms, develop a powerful online presence, and maintain its rich Texas heritage.

Approach

Leveraged multi-source customer data and predictive customer analytics to inform the brand refresh and drive program effectiveness, ROI, and optimization opportunities
Transformed the brand’s look-and-feel across the entire campaign ecosystem, taking a more social-first approach to content creation
Used audience insights to engage relevant influencers, driving buzz and word-of-mouth for new product launches, promotional offerings and larger brand awareness
Connected with our core brand advocates through innovative social-first activations, proactive community management and ongoing surprise & delights for our most engaged followers
Used an agile production process to reimagine the brand’s approach to campaign creative and launch its TikTok presence

Outcomes

We believe that authenticity is a key ingredient for maintaining relevance. That belief led to the creation of a bold new platform to bring in a new generation of customers, drive more store traffic and more sales.

Our platform propelled innovative, social-first activations like the “finders-keepers” scavenger hunt and a drive-through experience for 2020 graduates.

Our work helped drive the customized build-out of a Church’s chicken sandwich truck with real-time content to deliver food right to fans’ doors.

Our strategy hit the spot: In our first year together, we helped Church’s see a 90% increase in online sales and 76% growth in email subscribers. We introduced this legendary brand to a new generation, earning 9.1M impressions and 1.1M engagements.