Dave’s Hot Chicken is Gen Z’s worst-kept secret. On any given day there are queues around the block at its first UK store in Shaftesbury Avenue. “It's a real hype machine and it lives up to the hype,” says Keyana Mohammadi, Head of Marketing at the restaurant brand. 

It is a hype that has been harnessed by Mohammadi, the brand’s marketing machine of one, and has led to a launch result that many could only dream of. The successful launch of Dave’s Hot Chicken in the UK is a marketing masterclass in the power of social media, experiential and the power of a truly integrated approach. 

Heating up Hollywood

Dave’s Hot Chicken is a Nashville-style hot chicken brand with a basic menu of just four chicken items. The quality of the chicken is what draws in the crowds, along with the seven different spice levels that build up to ‘the reaper’. A spice level so hot that it comes served up with a waiver. An element of marketing inspired high-drama which underlines the brand’s experience-first approach. 

The brand’s origins are in East Hollywood where four young guys set up a chicken stand in a parking lot with just 900 dollars to their name. They had a week to find success before the funds ran out and just as they were about to pack in an LA Eater critic tried the food.

“The next day the headline that came out: ‘East Hollywood's new late-night hot chicken stand might blow your mind’ and it blew up. It went viral and from that last night they had queues around the block,” explains Mohammadi. 

Dave’s Hot Chicken has been riding the wave of hype ever since. From celebrity backers, including Usher, Drake and Samuel L Jackson, to the launch of over 250 sites in America, the brand is red hot. Mohammadi has had the task of translating Dave’s virality into a robust UK launch. 

Bringing LA to London

From the brand’s bold colours to its extra hot spice, at its core, Dave’s Hot Chicken is a Hollywood export. “It is very American and I actually think that works in our favour,” says Mohammadi.

“I was a bit worried about this cultural resistance we can have towards an American brand in the UK,” explains Mohammadi, adding: “But the more I got to know the brand, the product and the reason it’s gone viral, the more I realised that you don't want to change much of the brand.”

“A lot of our customers come in and want to experience Dave’s as if they’re in LA. If we changed it too much it wouldn't hold that originality or feel as authentic,” she continues.

Instead of changing the brand to fit the market, Mohammadi’s approach is one of tone of voice consideration and careful tweaking. She has focused on finding an approach that lands Dave’s in a way that is well received, keeping elements of the American voice but adapting it for a UK market, such as finding confident over cocky. 

The quick service restaurant (QSR) landscape is significantly different in the UK when compared to America. Yet in both markets the culture around fast food is shifting and changing. Dave’s launch comes at a time when the UK market in many ways is growing more receptive to fast food. 

“In the US the fast food culture is massive. It's been building for years. In the UK we are only just starting to catch up,” says Mohammadi. “We are going through a time where the cost of living is tough and when you can’t afford big things in life you want those small indulgences. Premium fast food can scratch that itch,” she adds. 

Social media storytelling

Social media has been a pivotal tool to the success of Dave’s UK launch and while much of the hype online has grown organically. Mohammadi, alongside her agency partners, Cut the Bull, does not underestimate the power of social storytelling. 

“Everything we did was centred around social media,” says Mohammadi, “We knew that ahead of opening our doors we had to build that hype.”

Before the launch of the Shaftesbury Avenue store, a pop-up in Shoreditch added an element of experiential to act as fuel for the social media fire. The pop-up provided space for Mohammadi to tell Dave’s Hot Chicken’s story and engage influencers and customers with a first, exclusive taste of the product. 

“We gave away 500 free sliders, opening it up for people to come and try and it was gone within an hour. Queues were forming hours before we even opened the gates,” shares Mohammadi. 

“We had a handful of influencers like Eating with Tod come in and they got the first ever Dave’s bite in the UK,” she adds. These large-scale influencers shared excitement via their own channels which trickled down into the food community as well as a Gen Z audience. 

“Once we had that macro level of word of mouth going we had two weeks to maximise on that before we opened our doors,” she explains. Both macro and micro-influencers have been pivotal in driving hype, making Dave’s the hot new thing that everybody has to try.

Mohammadi is aware that she is fortunate to be marketing a brand that already has a strong foundation of success in the US: “Being a new brand, new product, something exciting that doesn’t exist in the UK being brought over for the first time really held a lot of value when it came to building hype.”

She also acknowledges that a shift in culture in the way that Gen Z engages with fast food brands has made social media an invaluable tool. “Telling a brand story is much harder when you only have 8 seconds of someone's attention,” she adds. Yet, for that reason being aware of food trends and creating content like mukbangs or food ASMR to entertain or evoke emotion has been key to engaging with the culture. 

The team also harnessed the power of online outrage, with posts that teased the brand wouldn’t bring the reaper to the UK because ‘Brits can’t handle the spice’. Underlining that engagement and conversation are key, even if caused by posts that might gently rattle Gen Z.

“We are very much a Gen Z brand. Our demographic is very Gen Z and most are under the age of 25. The way that they consume media and marketing is very different. Social media has made the world a much smaller place,” Mohammadi adds.

Managing a sustainable hype cycle

 While online hype grows organically, harnessing the social media machine, and managing and sustaining hype long-term is where the true challenge lies. 

When it comes to Dave’s Hot Chicken, Mohammadi believes in the brand long-term because, at the heart of the hype, the product truly delivers. 

 “Everything we do goes back to the product,” says Mohammadi. “Even our style of photography is very unpolished and authentic. None of it’s professional. We want to retain that and keep that authentic feel.”

It is a testament to the product that influencers urge their followers to get down to Dave’s and try the food. The food industry has long been built on word-of-mouth recommendation and Mohammadi urges brands not to underestimate the power of influencers. 

“Marketeers tend to be quite resistant to influencers because they’re either charging too much, you’re not getting ROI or everyone’s an influencer now. But if you use influencers strategically it works really well,” says Mohammadi. 

She adds: “Getting big-time influencers with big followers involved was a game changer for us. It allowed us to open up social media to have that focus on us. Even the guests become our influencers.”

In the future, smaller communities and user-generated content will continue to be one of the restaurant's biggest assets. Far from being a flash in the pan, Mohammadi notes that she has been careful to hold back meaning that audiences can expect much more to come very soon. 

She shares a key learning has been: “Do not put all your cards on the table”’ She continues: “You can fall into a trap of ‘we’re launching a brand, let's throw everything at it’ and that could be the worst thing you can do.”

Fear of missing out and a sense of exclusivity has also been key to building the brand, as Mohammadi explains: “People love something that they can't have. That exclusivity of a brand. That element of holding back and creating mystery worked really well for us.”

With plans to launch in more cities, host more activations and create more social media buzz, Mohammadi’s work is far from over. Authenticity, community and strong brand identity are no accident and have been achieved through an effective marketing strategy. Dave's Hot Chicken might be built on hype but Mohammadi proves that hype is only valuable when you know how to harness it.