• Ad Age, Thursday, August 26, 2010 10:56 AM

Hundreds of Popeyes' fans emblazoned in orange took to Times Square yesterday and a none-too-subtle microsite -- http://www.popeyesbeatkfc.com/ -- went live, both trumpeting the fact that its Spicy and Mild Bonafide bone-in fried chicken beat out KFC Original Recipe in a national taste-test.

Among other things, Jennifer Rooney talks with Popeyes CMO Richard Lynch about the riskiness of conducting taste tests. "We believed we would win the taste test," he says. "When you're a brand that's about the food and you believe you have a superiority claim, you can't not do it." But if they lost, they would have told us, too, right?

As for its future strategy, Lynch says that the brand's Louisiana heritage is its "rudder" but that new products will be the "key" to its growth. He also says that the brand is currently getting more traction on Facebook than Twitter, a reversal. "There is a cult nature about this brand that lends itself nicely to social media," he claims.

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