• by Sarah Mahoney , Staff Writer @mahoney_sarah, September 27, 2024

Chicken nuggets currently occupy two contradictory spaces in America’s diet: They are both a boring requirement for busy parents and an exciting “new” trend in restaurants. Pilgrim’s latest campaign, “Put it in a Nugget,” is shaking things up from both ends of that spectrum with an original song, wee nuggets painstakingly styled as grandma, a cowboy and a jalapeno, and a savory twist on birthday cakes. Chelsea Parker, senior director of marketing of the Colorado-based brand, tells CPG Insider what’s behind the relaunch.

Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

CPG Insider: Tell us about the goals of the new campaign. I’m enchanted by the little cowboy.

Chelsea Parker: Me too. I call him Outlaw Nugget, and he represents the new ranch flavor. But I have nicknames for all of them.

This has been a fun campaign to create and put out into the world and see that other people love it, too. We wanted to be disruptive and get people to sit up and pay attention. In the brief, the only rule we gave Terri & Sandy, our agency, was to knock the boredom out of chicken. And we told them we either wanted to love the idea or hate it.

That inspired them to swing for the fences, and they came back with this idea for an original song, and it’s audacious. This anthem video is 90 seconds long, and they did it so it’s easy to cut down to 15-second slices, depending on the product and the media we’re using.

CPG Insider: Some would argue that chicken nuggets are the opposite of disruption. They are the boring frozen food items parents have to feed kids, night after night.

Parker: Yes, they are among the Top 5 items in grocery stores. And you’re right -- almost anything in the grocery store is dull and almost utilitarian. There’s not a lot of innovation.

When we decided to relaunch the brand, we asked ourselves where to begin. Nuggets aren’t just the biggest segment in the frozen food aisle but also the fastest growing. And that’s happening without any innovation. The biggest changes have been in bag sizes. We realized what was driving this growth trend was QSRs, and we thought, “OK, that is interesting.”

CPG Insider: Yes, nuggets are having a fast-food moment. McDonald’s introduced Chicken McNuggets in 1983, but Wendy’s is making a meal out those new Saucy Nuggs. What’s driving that renaissance?

Parker: Flavor. Many places that didn’t have them before are offering them now, and they’re doing new things with sauces and spices -- they’re exciting and tasty. We thought about the best ways to help people replicate that QSR experience at home.

CPG Insider: One of the characters in your ad is a grown-up man. With a beard, even. And of course, millennials grew up adoring nuggets. Are you specifically targeting adults, too?

Parker: We have a pretty widespread age breakdown. The kid-to-adult ratio is an important filter for us. Kids and adults both like nuggets, but most of our target consumers have kids. We want to find a fun way to appeal to both, making sure it is universally relatable.

CPG Insider: The company’s sales are up 6% in the latest quarter. What do you think is driving that? How do you see this launch helping?

Parker: We're focused on trial. We’ve spent the summer building inventory because we discontinued our complete last lineup of products to get ready for the relaunch. Now we’re building awareness.

We're in the back-to-school season, which has been incredibly important to get trial. We’re focused on retailer media promotions right now, including our first BOGO with Publix, which was successful. This is the busy season for frozen chicken.

CPG Insider: How are you using retail media networks?

Parker: They are the place we go first. It's an incredible priority for us. We have to be where people are shopping. And it’s not just about sales, but another awareness tactic. “Put it in a nugget” is helping there, too, getting people to recall the brand.

CPG Insider: Where else is the new work running?

Parker: Meta, especially, and also YouTube. A lot of online video. And we’re also starting to deploy a lot of creator content around our Ultimate Smash Cake idea. We're layering on more tactics to continue to drive interest and awareness.

CPG Insider: What metrics matter most as you track this relaunch?

Parker: We went dark over the winter as we got all the old inventory out of stores. Then we got a good baseline of awareness in May, before the relaunch, so we’ll know a lot when we remeasure it at the six-month mark. Our early indicators are good, especially in Georgia, Florida, and Illinois, because that’s where our key retailers are.

CPG Insider: Any surprises?

Parker: Of all the 15-second spots we’ve done, the one that rises to the top in every channel features the chicken pot pie. People love the mini nugget spot, the granny character and her kids. I'm optimizing the campaign towards what's working best, and those keep coming to the top.