Challenge: The Need for Precision
The QSR industry has long relied on the same audience targeting playbook: broad demographic segments (18–34-year-olds, "foodies," families) targeted through third-party data providers. Every brand competes for the same audiences using the same data, resulting in a crowded, undifferentiated landscape where new menu launches blend together.
When Popeyes launched its niche "Pickle Menu," traditional broad-reach targeting was too blunt a tool. Our objective was to bypass generic "foodies" and identify the pickle-obsessed, a specific target audience that traditional data easily overlooks.
Strategy: A New Data Source for Targeting
For a product as specific as an "All-Pickle Menu," this conventional approach would have been ineffective. We couldn't afford to waste impressions on general food enthusiasts. We needed to find people whose love of pickles was so strong they'd actively seek out pickle-forward menu items.
To isolate our target group, we moved beyond demographics to find a behavioral signal that proved genuine, 1:1 affinity. In the Fortnite metaverse, "skins" (playable characters) are expressions of identity. When Fortnite released "Big Dill", a giant playable pickle, we recognized that selecting this skin was a self-segmenting data point.
We became the first brand to treat in-game character selection as an audience targeting filter. By using this data to isolate players who chose to literally embody a pickle in-game, we identified a niche, high-intent audience based on a unique behavior: their virtual self-expression.
Execution: Reaching the Specific Audience
To reach this data-identified group, we met them where they were already active: inside Murder Mystery, one of Fortnite's most-trafficked islands. We built a 1:1 replica of a Popeyes restaurant and deployed a behavior-triggered experience:
The Fulfillment: This social verification triggered a direct-to-consumer reward: a digital coupon for the new Pickle Menu, turning virtual behavior into physical transaction.
Impact: Data-Driven Results
In just four days, by sourcing and implementing data creatively to identify a specific audience, we achieved:
Industry First: We proved that the future of targeting lies in creatively leveraging unique behavioral signals that already exist in digital environments. By treating in-game character selection as a unique data point, we unlocked a specific audience based on their real pickle passion.
