Chick-fil-A put on its pajamas for this month’s spotlighted ad, a seasonal promotion for its new Chicken and Waffles sandwich. The ad’s throwback style conceals a canny bit of strategy for the restaurant chain: a move to expand the waffles window from morning to all-day bringing a southern brunch classic to all areas of the country.
Waffles and syrup are for breakfast and the brand knows it. Its cast are dressed in pajamas and sleepwear with images of alarm clocks and breakfast tables throughout the ad, and dances which look very much like a set of morning exercises. But the sandwich being promoted with Chick-fil-A chicken joining the waffles is not just a morning proposition, and the ad makes sure viewers know it’s going to be available all day.
It’s a win-win strategy for the brand.
Promote a new menu item but also make both breakfast and daytime options more attractive for customers and what better way to do that than breakfast all day? The smart marketing extends to the creative elements of the ad, which embraces a very old school aesthetic of joyful dancing, clear product offers and even a brand new and highly catchy jingle, which could easily become a new distinctive asset for Chick-fil-A.
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That’s no small thing: System1’s research, The Creative Dividend, found that campaigns using a jingle average a 3.1 Star Rating (long-term brand growth), compared to 2.8 for those using neither a jingle nor a sonic device, along with stronger brand recognition and a bigger lift in fame and distinctiveness.
You might be tempted to call it “newstalgia,” a trend Chick-fil-A tapped into earlier this year, or part of a trend, but this style of advertising is classic for a reason – it works. Ads like this don’t care whether they seem corny—not when they boast strong branding, clear messaging, and most of all entertainment, all things that moved the sales needle.
System1’s Test Your Ad report shows that the old tricks still work. Chick-fil-A’s Chicken and Waffles ad scores a very strong 4.5-Star Rating, a measure that predicts long-term business effects and brand growth. That puts in the top 12 percent of all QSR and Coffee Shop ads.
Where Chick-fil-A really shines is in another one of System1’s key metrics, Spike Rating, which predicts an ad’s potential for short-term sales boosts. The Exceptional Spike score is in the top 1 percent in the category—this ad has the potential to be sales dynamite.
Why does it work so well? That classic feel puts it in the top tier on the two central components of Spike—the intensity of people’s emotional response to the ad, and their speed of recognition. Emotional intensity matters because whether people are amused or annoyed—and the Star Rating shows it’s mostly amused—the ad is causing a reaction. And Fast Fluency—quick recognition—is born from the early, strong branding. Brand well and get noticed—old school virtues that go together for Chick-fil-A as well as … chicken and waffles.
Vanessa Chin is the SVP of Marketing at System1, The Creative Effectiveness Platform that predicts and improves the commercial impact of ads and ideas. Vanessa leads US marketing efforts to enhance visibility and expand business opportunities. Previously, she was Marketing Director at ALDI, supporting its transformation into the fastest-growing US grocery chain. Vanessa has also worked at Leo Burnett, MARC USA, and BBDO, with expertise in advertising, brand development, and global marketing operations.
