Popeyes broadcasts its first Facebook Live on National Fried Chicken Day

Today is apparently National Fried Chicken Day so, naturally, Popeyes is making its first foray on Facebook Live this afternoon.

The chicken chain is hosting a “Drive-Thru Bash” on its Facebook page two times today to celebrate the alleged holiday, complete with a set resembling a Popeyes’ drive-thru, a chirpy host asking viewers trivia questions for free food and a DJ.

Popeyes’ Facebook page has more than 676,000 fans, but the first broadcast at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time only pulled in roughly concurrent 600 viewers. In total, the first broadcast raked in 18,000 views.

While the fledgling platform doesn’t have an average view benchmark, it’s well below the numbers that other brands have registered, perhaps hurt by Facebook’s tweak to the News Feed that devalues publishers and brands in favor of friends and family.

Popeyes is planning another live broadcast at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

Austin-based agency GSD&M helped create the event. “National Fried Chicken Day is obviously a pretty big deal to Popeyes and we thought we should do something special for all our fans out there who want some awesome chicken but may be stuck on a conference call or something,” Tom Hamling, group creative director at GSD&M, told Digiday.

Brands have gradually getting on board with Facebook Live; Dunkin Donuts, IHOP and beauty brand Benefit have all posted live fare on their pages.

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