Thanks to a viral social media plea, a kid from a 10-year-old meme is now an official Popeyes ambassador.
Known as the Popeyes meme kid, a picture of Dieurnest Collin, age nine, giving side eye while in line at a New Jersey Popeyes went viral on social media platform.
Ten years later, Collin, now 18 and a division II football player for Lake Erie College, took to Instagram with a public plea to join forces with the brand again, writing “@popeyes I JUST WANNA TALK BUISNESS."
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The post quickly gained popularity, generating over 175 thousand likes.
Within days, Popeyes responded with “Let’s get this bread(ing),” followed by an announcement that the chicken brand signed Collin to an NIL sponsorship. These deals allow college athletes to profit off of their “names, image and likeness” (NIL).
As a part of the deal, Collin will be featured on a Popeyes billboard near his hometown in New Jersey. Other terms of the arrangement were not disclosed, but I hope it includes plenty of chicken sandwiches!
Social media: Connecting consumers to brands
At the 2022 Chicken Marketing Summit, Danette Amstein, co-founder and managing principal, Midan Marketing, discussed the importance of social media moments in reaching consumers and keeping chicken as the protein at the center of the plate.
“Some of us love it and others hate it. But let’s be real, it needs to be part of our strategy. Because that where they’re spending time,” she said.
Today’s consumer has the same attention span as a goldfish – about six seconds. And, while the adage used to be that it took seven times for a message to stick with consumers – that number is now 21.
This makes it more important than ever to find ways to reach consumers where they are and in a multitude of ways. Another recent example of this is the recent Raising Cane’s collaboration with competitive eating champion, Joey Chestnut, to celebrate National Chicken Finger day.
Attend the 2023 Chicken Marketing Summit
The 2023 Chicken Marketing Summit will be held at Hotel Effie Sandestin in Miramar Beach, Florida on Monday, July 31 – Wednesday, August 2, 2023. Serving a unique cross section of the chicken supply chain, Chicken Marketing Summit explores issues and trends in food marketing and consumer chicken consumption patterns and purchasing behavior.
For more information and to attend, visit: www.wattglobalmedia.com/chickenmarketingsummit/.
