Episode 114 - Wingstop Thighstop Ad Reviewed By Schbang and Logitech
When the US was running out of chicken wings during the pandemic, Wingstop hacked their own brand to become Thighstop. But is that the full story?
This week’s ad chosen by Contagious is a case study that combines rebranding, agility, and great reach from a big challenger brand that found itself on the global stage thanks to their out of the box move. How did Wingstop manage to change everything from pack design to advertising and what impression did they make on our Advertisers Watching Ads guests?
Watch the ad and hear from Harshil Karia (Founder of Schbang) and Johann Evanno (Global Marketing Director, Streamers & Creators, at Logitech) to find out how this got scored 5 out of 5!
Episode 114 - Wingstop Thighstop Ad Reviewed By Schbang and Logitech
Transcript - It’s not perfect, but you get the idea!
Tom Ollerton 0:00
Hello, and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. This is a weekly show where brands watch other brands' ads.
We are brought to you as ever, by our partners, Contagious, so please go and check those guys out after the show. But before we see this week's ad, let's meet this week's guests.
Harshil Karia 0:23
Hi, I'm Harshil. And I run the team at Schbang.
Johann Evanno 0:26
I'm Johann Evanno. I'm the Global Marketing Director for the category called Streamers and Creators at Logitech.
Tom Ollerton 0:35
Fantastic. If you're a brand that runs out of your product's core ingredient, what do you do? Well... Wingstop in the US completely rebranded themselves to Thighstop. Let's have a look at it.
In terms of votes, so five is great, one is not great. One, two, three... A five and a five. Yeah, I have to agree. That was definitely one of the best things we've seen on the show. But Harshil, what was going on here outside of this video? Can you give us a bit of context?
Harshil Karia 2:48
I think that in a lot of boardrooms, they talk about agility. And with a lot of companies, you know, that's the most loved word in companies nowadays. But I think this is a great example of a, really turning things around so quickly. And that's what I loved about it. It became thighs so quickly. The printing happened, the media fire together, the social media fire together, the influencers fire together. I think that's, you know, one of the biggest complexities, is getting all marketing channels to really fire together and get timing correct. And get, you know, also material together. So I love that about this.
Johann Evanno 3:20
For me, the keyword is storytelling. The way they present the whole, you know, move is, "We're saving America." And essentially, if you look into it a bit, you know, deeper is, you know, the costs were, you know, increasing due to COVID shortage. The chicken wings, you know, were getting like three to four times more expensive. So they had to come up with something to still maintain the profit. But that in itself is a pretty bad story. And the way they put together that whole plan, to me is a, is a genius move. Actually, the consumers feel like, "Okay, they're helping me as a, as a consumer, if I want chicken, you know, I can still have some, even if I may not have wings." So for me, storytelling was very impressive with that video.
Harshil Karia 4:05
I think, you know, this case study, and I think often, as advertisers, we often scoff at, you know, agencies making fancy case studies, but I think these are also opportunities for such large challenger brands. And I call it a large challenger brand, because 190 million is not, you know, any, by any stretch of the imagination, not a small brand. But it allows such a brand to be spoken about on the global stage. And it says that, "Look, here's something interesting that we did." And to the point that you had made about the storytelling, I think that point is super when because that storytelling is therefore so refined and so sharp, it deserves that.
Tom Ollerton 4:40
I'm curious to know, like, surely someone didn't come in and go, "Let's completely rename the brand!" And everyone went, "Yeah!" But it must have happened so quickly. I'm just curious to know, what do you think was in place to make this even possible?
Johann Evanno 4:50
I think there is some, I would say three elements. The long term trend, the short term agility, and the execution. Long term trend, chicken wings cost went up. So they were already thinking about doing something with thighs and not wings. I think they were getting into the logistics probably of like food production before that crisis happened. So they probably had some of the groundwork done. The short term trend was country is running out of wings, we need to do something. So that... They had to react quickly. And I... Yeah, that requires courage, not to say balls to do that. The third pump I have in mind is the execution. It feels like it was made in the garage and did overnight, that it actually served, to me, it serves the purpose of the storytelling of... "Look, we know it's not gonna look pretty, but at least we'll do our best to give you your chicken portion." It feels like they kind of made or brought a sense of urgency by the amateur level of execution that made people feel, "Yeah, actually, it's really believable that they're really trying to help me." I suspect a good chunk of the billion numbers is coming from their reach. But that's true, if you have a good storytelling, people pick up on it.
Harshil Karia 6:03
So I think also advertisers are smart in the sense that advertisers don't commission such case studies, because typically, an award-winning case study will have a writer who's won a couple of award-winning case studies. Most of these writers, they talk about the tension point and say that we need to establish that tension point, you know, to the point about, "Hey, we're helping America." So there has to be that larger than life purpose. And there has to be that tension. So I think in that context, the macroeconomic environment, so to speak, has to be really stretched. But also, I mean, this is a large challenger, and this large challenger gets a global stage. So if it is getting global stage, you might as well put everything behind it. And that is why also the brand would have said that, "Hey, you know, this is actually a brilliant idea. Somebody in supply chain has come up with a brilliant idea about putting thighs instead of wings. And let's magnify, let's talk about it in the press. Let's get Jimmy Fallon to talk about it. Let's get all these people to talk about it." And there, then, it builds a global case.
Johann Evanno 6:58
That storytelling was there from the beginning. And that's how they got that much news coverage from like, super big media outlets. Because if it was just a, "Hey, we're changing our brand." Okay, thanks. Have fun, good luck with that. See you in two years. I would be surprised if, if that part just came out afterwards for the video to submit to the Cannes Awards or whatever, Cannes Lions or... I suspect that's what actually hooked people. So being brave, but also being smart. I don't know if it was the internal team or the agency or both. But you know, building that story, which seems quite exaggerated in my book, but that does work. You feel like those guys are like, literally, you know, on the frontline.
Harshil Karia 7:45
So there's two kinds of marketing directors, right? There's, there's the marketing directors who deliver a lot of growth, on strength of brand. And then there's some of those who also like to kind of use a campaign such as this to really inject a bit of steroid into, into the brand who pushed the agency saying that look, "You know, actually I want to see this work on the global stage." I think we also need to appreciate the work of the marketing director there who's really gone and stuck his neck out saying, "Look, we're gonna do this." I'm sure it wasn't very easy to convince... Do this unfinished stuff, let's put these tapes, let's, you know, rebrand all the ads. It's not easy. And you know, I mean, you've got... Of course, they've got a celebrity like Rick Ross, who also co-owns some part of the company, so he's gonna put his neck out. And they've really utilized him really well, because I see in the case also, there's three mentions of Rick Ross. But I also think we need to appreciate you know, like the risk that the marketing directors taken in this case, and really put the brand out there.
Johann Evanno 8:38
It's like... Helps the long term strategy, helps the financials of the company, helps the storytelling, helps the sustainability message of, "We're using more stuff from the same chicken." It's like, look, "Take my money!" Right? It's like, they tick all the boxes.
Tom Ollerton 8:53
Yes or no? Would you have signed this off?
Johann Evanno 8:57
Yes.
Harshil Karia 8:58
Yeah. 200%, yeah.
Tom Ollerton 8:59
Okay. Harshil, Johann, thanks so much for your time.
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