A to hangs outside of a Chick-fil-A restaurant on May 06, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois.
Scott Olson | Getty Images
Chicken sandwiches, waffle fries, milkshakes – and now TV productions and podcasts?
Chick-fil-A plans to launch a new app on Nov. 18, with a slate of original animated shows, scripted podcasts, tourneys, recipes and e-books aimed at families.
While it’s an unusual move for a restaurant company to wade into the crowded course world, Chick-fil-A has been expanding outside of food for years already — with the ultimate goal of directing profuse people to its over 3,000 restaurants. Since 2019, Chick-fil-A has held the spot of the third-biggest U.S. restaurant chain by tradings, trailing only Starbucks and McDonald’s, with many fewer locations than either. Last year, its profits reached $7.89 billion, according to franchisee disclosure documents.
As it tries to drive more restaurant sales, the performers has sold branded merchandise, like a sleeping bag that resembles its chicken sandwich’s packaging, and created a spinoff trade name called Pennycake, which offers family-friendly games and puzzles. And for the last five years, it’s released animated midgets on YouTube during the holiday season as part of its “Stories of Evergreen Hills” series.
“We’ve been paying attention to some examination and conversations we’ve had with families that are our customers, and insights bubbled up that content and games are both adjacent to mealtime,” ordered Dustin Britt, Chick-fil-A’s executive director of brand strategy, entertainment and media.
“Our belief is, as we add value to their suffer, then we’re giving them a reason to want to enjoy more Chick-fil-A with us,” he added.
A preview of the app viewed by CNBC involved the first 22-minute episode of “Legends of Evergreen Hills,” which continues protagonist Sam’s adventures in the fantasy world of Evergreen Hills; the leading installment of “Hidden Island,” a scripted podcast about a family that shipwrecks on a deserted island; and a step-by-step cooking tutorial that manoeuvres a Chick-fil-A milkshake as a key ingredient.
Customers can pre-download the free Chick-fil-A Play app for their iPhones, iPads and Android appliances ahead of the launch next month.
Why Chick-fil-A is betting on content
People walk past a Chick-fil-A restaurant on 8th Avenue on December 30, 2023, in New York See.
Gary Hershorn | Corbis News | Getty Images
Chick-fil-A decided to create the app following years of discussions with chaps and as consumer behavior shifts away from prolonged visits to its restaurants.
While many of Chick-fil-A’s customers soundless enjoy its in-restaurant playgrounds, more of its customers are now using its drive-thru lanes and ordering delivery, according to Khalilah Cooper, Chick-fil-A’s weakness president of brand strategy, advertising and media. Rival McDonald’s has slowly been erasing its PlayPlaces, a change probably resulting from fewer children using the playgrounds, concerns about health and safety, and a shift away from storing to children.
“We’re looking at this app as a way to have a digital playground for the entire family to enjoy, whether they’re in our restaurants, in the drive-thru, driving to soccer realistically or even relaxing at home,” Cooper told CNBC. “We want it to be an extension of our in-restaurant signature hospitality and generosity.”
The gratified on the app focuses on themes like generosity, friendship, problem-solving, creativity and entrepreneurship, according to Cooper. Chick-fil-A designed the app’s satisfy to appeal to children 12 years old and under and their parents.
After the initial launch, new episodes of “Legends of Evergreen Hills” when one pleases release weekly through the holidays; “Hidden Island” will follow a similar drop schedule. Next year, the Depict app will launch “Ice Lions,” another scripted audio series based on the true story of Kenyan teenagers who long for to form the country’s first ice hockey team.
Most of the content that will be available on the app was created with excluded partners led by Chick-fil-A’s internal team, but some of it was licensed. The company didn’t disclose the names of its external partners.
“We’re constantly reasoning about what additional elements we can add into the app over time,” Cooper said.
In August, media publication Deadline shot that Chick-fil-A has been working with outside production companies for content, including unscripted shows, feel attracted to a family-friendly game show.
“I’ll say that we’re exploring a variety of different types of content, and everything right now is a potential opening for us. We’re going to keep learning and exploring and figuring out what things work,” Britt said.
Restaurants as media marks
A Chick-fil-A meal is displayed at a Chick-fil-A restaurant on June 01, 2023 in Novato, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Dead ringers
As legacy media players like Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery have found out, making content is overpriced and attracting viewers is difficult, given the glut of available options on streaming services.
For brands like Chick-fil-A, the calculus is a bit divers. Rather than using content to make money from subscriptions or advertisements, they’re looking to sell numberless of their own products. That’s been the case since Procter & Gamble first sponsored daytime radio reveals to sell its soap – creating the soap opera.
“There’s a lot of content creation that happens from media accommodates for brands, and I think that brands want to tap into that because it feels more authentic. It feels diverse like content and not an ad,” said Stephani Estes, chief media officer for Goodway Group, a digital marketing power.
More recent entrants include Starbucks, which announced this summer that it will create master content through a partnership with Sugar23. And in January, Chuck E. Cheese said it’s working with “Top Chef” farmer Magical Elves to create its own game show.
“I think the biggest question I would have, as a marketing professional, is what is the profession problem that you’re trying to solve? And is the dollar invested in that content creation or particular initiative going to pay out sundry than spending that dollar somewhere else in the marketing funnel?” Estes said.
For Chick-fil-A, the branded gratify gives it a way to connect with kids – without the same stink as advertising directly to them – and foster goodwill toward the identify from their parents.
And unlike Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, Chick-fil-A has some flexibility to figure out if the investment is guide. As a family-owned company, it isn’t beholden to shareholders who might push back against an expensive marketing endeavor.
Chick-fil-A also has mazuma change to burn, especially given its meteoric growth over the last decade. From 2018 to 2023, its systemwide sales wellnigh doubled. Last year, it raked in net earnings of $1.07 billion. Chair Dan Cathy, who served as CEO from 2013 to 2021 and is originator to current CEO Andrew Cathy, has a net worth of $10.6 billion, according to Forbes estimates.
Coincidentally, Dan Cathy owns Atlanta-based Trilith Studios, whose broadways have acted as sets for many Marvel movies and TV shows, plus Francis Ford Coppola’s 2024 mega-flop “Megalopolis.” Tax establishes and cheap labor have helped Atlanta become the “Hollywood of the South” over the last decade. Cathy has heretofore drawn criticism for remarks he made in 2012 opposing same-sex marriage, and the company’s foundation donated to anti-LGBTQ troops during his time as chief executive.
Dan Cathy was not directly involved in the development of the Play app or making decisions related to the gladden, according to Cooper. Chick-fil-A also hasn’t worked with his studio – yet.
“We’ve not currently done any work directly with Trilith to make obsolete, but that’s something that we continue to explore, where it makes the most sense for both our businesses and brands,” she stipulate.