Aviation Gin and Popeyes

Facebook and Twitter are very versatile platforms in their own right. The content you publish exemplifies the audience that you are trying to reach and the way you hope your company to be seen in the publics’ mind. Different companies approach the issue in different ways. Many take the safe approach of maintaining a courteous, PR-friendly approach to create a business persona that only exist in the internet to sell products. There are a few companies that are more daring when it comes to this practice, however. Aviation Gin and Popeyes Chicken are both companies that have decided to push the limits of social media and their own PR teams by using a more witty and relatable approach. Both companies are not afraid to shake up the status quo, which has proven to be quite effective marketing techniques as their products have seen positive receptions. The one that I find most daring has to be Aviation Gin, as it is trying to cement its way into an already saturated market.

Aviation Gin is a brand new face in the alcohol industry, the thing that sets it apart from others is its owner, Ryan Reynolds. While the company does not have the most serious or business-like social media, it uses the well-established persona of its owner and uses that as a platform to extend its reach and become more likeable in the modern age. The audience it is trying to reach is mostly a younger one, as exemplified by its promotional videos which use extensive sarcastic undertones and tongue-in-cheek humor. Ryan Reynolds uses his influence as a celebrity and on-screen comedian to promote his product to his followers. It is a very good business strategy and marketing ploy as by associating the product with the owner the product itself is not judged by the contents of the bottle but by the associated act. The twitter and facebook pages are not afraid to push the boundaries of sensationalism. On its Facebook page, one of the first videos you might see is one with a hashtag of #rejectedslogans, which basically sums up the attitude that they are trying to present using the well known repertoire of Ryan Reynolds. In the tweet above you can see that he engages his followers and even inspires them to create content that further promote his product.  As is the nature of most marketing, Aviation Gin promotes its product without ever really telling us much about it. This is a pretty common tactic that seems to be especially effective when trying to promote a new product. A more recent example with a different approach would be that of the Popeyes chicken sandwich.

Popeyes Louisiana Chicken has been a key player in the fast food chicken industry for a long time. It has a long history of competition with other chicken fast food chains, most notably KFC. It is, however, a newcomer in the chicken sandwich market and was slow to adapt to the online marketing platform. Up until recently, the social media presence of Popeyes had been subdued, sticking mostly to promotional posts and customer reviews. That all changed with the introduction of its chicken sandwich and a brand new rivalry. When Popeyes first released its chicken sandwich, it didn’t really have a massive promotional campaign behind it. It’s release wasn’t really that out of the ordinary, nothing revolutionary, but there was at least one person that noticed. Chick-fil-A is the largest chicken chain in the United States with a great reputation for good customer service and its signature chicken sandwiches. On the day that the Popeyes sandwich released, it decided to post a tweet that would propel the relatively unknown Popeyes chicken sandwich into the forefront of a social media frenzy. If there is something that the media has figured out, it’s that most people care more about personalities than content. When people saw what seemed to be the beginning of a fast food chain feud, people were quickly divided and and interest started to ferment. There is an old media saying, “there is no such thing as bad publicity.” Popeyes quickly adapted from the original tweet, pivoting its entire social media to employ more of the things that had skyrocketed its presence on Twitter. It even started to understand its audience and customers better, employing youthful slang and improper grammar in contrast to its earlier formal approach. This ruse has all been in favor of Popeyes, as it seems that even they weren’t ready for the chicken sandwich boom as can be seen from the shortages in a lot of their stores. This is just one example of how understanding your audience and reading the social media climate can positively impact a business overnight. Something as simple as a provocative retweet can pique interest and incite brand loyalty in people that would otherwise be indifferent to regular, run-of-the-mill advertising. 

Popeyes
https://www.facebook.com/PopeyesLouisianaKitchen/
https://twitter.com/PopeyesChicken

Aviation Gin
https://www.facebook.com/AviationGin/
https://twitter.com/AviationGin