Last week, Red Rooster did something rather out-of-the-ordinary, to say the least.
Rather than being all conventional and releasing a TVC, OOH and some radio assets to spruik its Hot Honey Crunch Fried Chicken, the brand decided to launch an e-book. And it was a decidedly risqué affair.
Never one to turn down an opportunity for some innuendo and japery, B&T thought we’d probe a bit deeper into the work with Red Rooster CEO Sam Bragg and Leo’s creative director Michelle Walsh.
“Our sector is dominated by the QSR giants with marketing budgets to match, so were looking for an out of the ordinary way to re-engage Hot Honey devotees and at the same time attract new customers,” Bragg told B&T.
“This is Hot Honey’s third iteration so a TVC alone wasn’t going to cut it… I’d say we are probably the first QSR to create an e-storybook – or certainly an adult-only parody – so what better way to entice and engage new customers than with a little bit of saucy naughtiness.”
In case you missed it, the e-book The Birds & Bees: The Unofficial Story Of How Hot Honey Crunch Was Made was a hoot. Created with the aid of AI (more on that below), it tells the story of Chris P. Chicken and his adventures with the fairer sex. Despite being a hit with the ladies and his dalliances at the chicken strip club, he felt empty.
That was until he met Hot Honey. In a tale fit for Shakespeare, their families tried to keep them apart. But “cluck it,” he thought and went after Hot Honey. But they were ripped apart again—by the Crunch Cops, no less—before a Red Rooster saved the day.
One thing led to another and some Hot Honey Crunch children were born.
“With competitors launching similar Hot Honey products, we needed a bold idea that would remind Aussies where this unique flavour originated,” said Walsh, who received a Highly Commended award from the judges at B&T’s recent Women in Media Awards, presented by Are Media.
“We also wanted to highlight Red Rooster’s quality ingredients and the love and care that goes into their products. This got us thinking about how Hot Honey Crunch was conceived, and what would happen when a fried chicken drumstick and a hot, saucy honeypot loved each other very, very much,” Walsh continued.
“I have to admit, we were a little unsure how our clients would receive the idea at first. But we needn’t have worried because they saw the potential right off the bat and encouraged us to go for it. We then worked closely together to craft the idea and amplify the launch.”
From there, Bragg said it was a “total collaborative client/agency process”.
“A bit of old school brainstorming that we were all in together…the idea evolved from an off-the-cuff comment and then suddenly we all clicked and said this is it,” she added.
“We didn’t need much convincing as we loved the initial concept and the end result speaks for itself. Yes, it’s a little bit risqué but we needed to be different, and this felt like the right way to make Reds stand out from the pack.”
But having an idea and making it a reality are two quite different things. Operating on a tight turnaround, Walsh said it was “AI or bust”.
“In an ideal world, we would have engaged an illustrator… We all had so much love for this idea and didn’t want to see it end up in a pile of ‘couldabeens’, so we embraced AI to make it happen,” she said.
“The entire book was illustrated using Publicis’ suite of AI tools. We had a kick-off with our creative technologist and in-house production team, giving them a detailed brief on the book’s characters, the world of Red Roosterland, the colour palette, and actions in each scene, as well as some stylistic references. The illustrations on each page were then generated in layers so we could make amends to specific aspects without affecting the entire scene. We also used AI to help us generate a basic story structure, but it required a lot of human intervention to craft and deliver on all the saucy innuendo,” Walsh added.
Bragg couldn’t have been happier with the result.
“But this is the use of AI at its best… the AI tools allowed us to work with a limited budget and a very tight deadline plus create fantastic illustrations which if created from scratch would have taken five times as long and cost significantly more… I am very proud that the brand – and our agency – are brave enough to try something new and achieve such a successful outcome,” she said.
But with such an out-there project, executed in such an unusual manner, how will Red Rooster and Leo be assessing if the work is successful?
“Reds’ customers are vocal so we will no doubt hear from them quickly whether they resonate with the campaign or not…but of course we will also closely monitor sales, the e-book downloads and social engagement,” said Bragg.
“We’ll know we’ve been successful if people engage with the book. But the ultimate measure of success will be if it contributes to an uplift in sales of Hot Honey Crunch. They say sex sells. But whether or not a drumstick’s love for some dipping sauce sells, I guess we’ll find out,” added Walsh.
