00;00;03;00 - 00;00;18;24
VO
Welcome to Dig In, the podcast brought to you by Dig Insights. Each week Jess Gaedeke chats with world class brand professionals to bring you the story behind the story of some of the most breakthrough innovations, marketing tactics, and campaigns.

00;00;18;27 - 00;00;37;21
Jess
Hi everybody. Welcome to the Dig In podcast. I'm Jess Gaedeke and today I am joined by someone that I get some really good vibes from. It's Jordan Cusner, Head of Guest Insights at Popeyes. And I got to say, when we first chatted, I just felt like you're super down to earth intellect. And I think our listeners are going to love to hear you drop some wisdom.

00;00;37;21 - 00;00;39;24
Jess
So thanks for joining us here today.

00;00;39;26 - 00;00;42;08
Jordan
That's a very high bar.

00;00;43;19 - 00;00;49;12
Jess
The bar has been set, so let's go. Okay. I'd love for you to start by telling us a little bit about your background.

00;00;49;14 - 00;01;15;28
Jordan
Sure. well, it was great meeting you as well. Obviously, I go way back with some of your colleagues and happy to make your acquaintance. yeah. So I've been in insights 15 years or so, started off in consulting, and on the vendor side, I was at C Space for a number of years doing, you know, market research, online communities, qualitative and other methodologies. Moved over to Hasbro, where I led insights for Global gaming as part of our, you know, gaming portfolio,

00;01;15;28 - 00;01;34;09
Jordan
Connect 4, Monopoly. All the games we all love. and played growing up. Yeah, was really fun. And then my family made our way to Baltimore, and I worked at McCormick for a number of years where I led insights on global strategy. A supporter of condiments business, and helped support the acquisition of our the Reckitt Benckiser food portfolio.

00;01;34;09 - 00;01;54;02
Jordan
So French's Mustard and Frank's Redhot came into the fold. Support our Canadian business, so, you know, classic CPG stuff was great. And then about three years ago, made the move over to QSR, worked at Burger King for a number of months, and then transitioned to Popeyes, where I now lead the insights team and, Popeyes and Burger King are both under the same parent brand, RBI.

00;01;54;06 - 00;01;56;00
Jordan
So yeah, easy move.

00;01;56;02 - 00;02;02;06
Jess
So what haven't you done? So we've done vendor side, we've done toys, we've done CPG, we've done QSR, we've done --

00;02;02;06 - 00;02;08;23
Jordan
Games, Jess, no toys. Oh there's a little sibling rivalry between the toy game side at Hasbro I'm a game guy.

00;02;08;25 - 00;02;24;08
Jess
I might unpack that later. But, thank you for that introduction and that correction. Appreciate that. So I like to get things going with an impromptu question that you don't know is coming. So here you go. What actor would you want to play you in a movie about your life?

00;02;24;10 - 00;02;47;00
Jordan
Oh, wow. Harry Connick Jr. I think he was on Will and Grace. a) I think he's funny and down to earth, and he doesn't take himself too seriously. And I'm happy that maybe you got some of those vibes from me. And people sometimes say I look a little bit like him. So I think if I'm if that's maybe a little too self-aggrandizing.

00;02;47;02 - 00;03;03;10
Jordan
and he's a musician, I'm a musician. I vibe with here. I don't listen to a lot of Harry Connick Jr. But what I have heard of him, he has a line he said once, “That's all, all gravy, no chops.” You know, it sounds like it's all all sizzle. No steak. I like that, but it's a musical reference.

00;03;03;11 - 00;03;03;26
Jordan

00;03;04;00 - 00;03;05;29
Jess
That's great. What do you play?

00;03;06;02 - 00;03;07;02
Jordan
I play the guitar.

00;03;07;04 - 00;03;13;19
Jess
Okay. Very cool. Yeah. My son's getting into guitar and it's like. I'm like heartbreaker. It's just. It's so cute, so cool.

00;03;13;22 - 00;03;15;23
Jordan
Jess, can I, can I plug my band quickly?

00;03;15;24 - 00;03;16;14
Jess
Please do.

00;03;16;21 - 00;03;24;06
Jordan
I'm the lead guitarist in the Popeye's all star band, Earth, Wind and Fryer.

00;03;24;08 - 00;03;50;09
Jess
Oh my God, nailed it. Yeah, I think the interview is over. I don't think we can get any better than that, so. Oh my God, amazing. But let's dig in. As you know, our listeners really do crave inspiration from other leaders. And I think one of the best ways to inspire is to tell a story. And I absolutely love talking about these big ads that hit the Super Bowl and, I just I want to hear the story about the wait is over, which was such a cool spot.

00;03;50;10 - 00;04;03;04
Jess
Hopefully. Let's start with you explaining the spot for those who might not have seen it. if they live under a rock and didn't see the Super Bowl. But, tell us about the spot. And then how did it originate? What kind of inspired that idea?

00;04;03;07 - 00;04;31;09
Jordan
Yeah. So, a very fun project. Happy to talk about it. So the spot was an eccentric billionaire is awoken from cryogenic deep freeze, played by Ken Jeong from The Hangover and Community and other spots. And he's very, very funny character. So he's this eccentric billionaire who froze himself because he didn't want to live in a world where there weren't perfect chicken wings and, his team of scientists wake him up and say, we've done it.

00;04;31;12 - 00;04;52;10
Jordan
We've created the perfect wing, or Popeye's, I should say, created the perfect wing. And Ken, he eats it. He's still in the tank. And he says, oh, crispy, juicy. It's great. And then he says, kind of with this funny look on his face, like, well, what else has changed? And then the rest of the spot is him now, 50 years removed from I guess, his, you know, actual life interacting with all the new things.

00;04;52;10 - 00;05;12;00
Jordan
So like drones delivering food. And he's very excited about that. He has like a massage chair. He's in a self-driving car. There's a dog that's, I want to say a poodle and a cocker spaniel or something and he’s like two dogs in one. I can't believe it. Funny little inside bit that’s actually Ken's dog that he wanted to put in the spot, we were happy to oblige.

00;05;12;01 - 00;05;17;05
Jess
So funny. I thought he was being a little bit like. Like he was really toying with his arms. I'm like, oh, yeah.

00;05;17;05 - 00;05;34;24
Jordan
Yeah. So that's his. That's Ken's dog. yeah. So and so it's very funny. And it just kind of shows him kind of freaking out about the the world around him. And it ends with him in the massage chair singing the Popeyes jingle love that chicken for Popeyes. But it's, you know, he's being jostled about by the chair while he's eating the wings.

00;05;34;24 - 00;05;41;08
Jordan
And it's very ridiculous. So that's the spot. I can go back and tell the story. Is that what you want, Jess?

00;05;41;08 - 00;05;43;15
Jess
Yeah tell me the story. Where did it originate?

00;05;43;17 - 00;06;09;18
Jordan
Yes. So, we had an LTO in January of last year so 23 Ghost Pepper Wings. Great product, and they did extremely well for us. And we had already planned to launch a more sustained platform around the wings at the end of the year, end of 23. And we started to pull some of that a little closer in, given the enthusiasm we had around the wings.

00;06;09;18 - 00;06;27;23
Jordan
It was just a great opportunity to kind of continue to keep our foot on the pedal. and we did that. So we launched a second single LTO sauce, like middle of the year and then launched the platform, I want to say the end of October, which is a five flavor at the time, was five flavors. And we're expanding that, as we speak.

00;06;27;25 - 00;06;46;22
Jordan
And so a lot of we had a big plan, to support that. and then given the enthusiasm, the excitement, and then we realized, given the need to kind of educate people, that Popeyes has wings, I think that was kind of the big outage. or I shouldn't say outage. The challenge we were facing. Right. We're known for a great brand and a great product.

00;06;46;22 - 00;07;05;12
Jordan
And obviously the chicken sandwich a couple of years ago kind of changed the the complexion of QSR. Everybody has a chicken sandwich now. You're welcome. America. and still come to Popeyes because we’re the best obviously. But we needed to kind of now, you know, change the game. So now we're moving into and kind of trying to take over the wing space as well.

00;07;05;12 - 00;07;26;15
Jordan
And to be perfectly honest, this is not me even like shilling for the brand. But I love the wings I think that they're a really, really solid product. Great flavor. Great, you know, protein, great meat itself. It's it's really high quality. It's excellent. So we need people to know about it. And so what better way than to hit all those eyeballs at once and do it in a really fun, exciting, memorable way.

00;07;26;18 - 00;07;43;08
Jordan
And luckily, a) it's a message that kind of lends itself to a little bit of that silliness. I mean, here it was a lot of the different scripts we left out were kind of like jokingly talking about how, how could it be that we waited this long to have wings. And that's kind of where a little bit of the idea came from.

00;07;43;10 - 00;07;58;20
Jordan
And it's a very simple message. You know, sometimes a brand, you think about some of the other brands that have had, you know, bad campaigns over the Super Bowl. They've too much they're trying to say, and it's such a busy time of year, so much really, really engaging creative. We had a very simple message. We have wings, period.

00;07;58;20 - 00;08;13;09
Jordan
And the goal was for everybody to come and try them. and so I think it was a really great opportunity to kind of do something bold and exciting. And it was a) new for Popeyes to have the wings in a consistent way, we've had the LTO and it was our first Super Bowl spot, and we were really excited about that.

00;08;13;09 - 00;08;32;26
Jordan
And, you know, lastly, I'll say Ken had New Orleans roots, which really was I don't know if it’s something we considered, but he was really excited. He went to medical school in Tulane. When he gave the, you know, the address years later, as the, you know, honorary doctorate recipient, his writer demanded that he have Popeyes in his you know, green room.

00;08;32;28 - 00;08;51;05
Jordan
So he was a really he's a passionate Popeyes fan, which just made it all the better. He was really excited about it. He went on Jimmy Fallon a week before the Super Bowl and he teased the Super Bowl ad. Usually celebrities are teasing the new project or new TV show or whatever. He was teasing our ad because he was really excited about it and, he's proud of the work.

00;08;51;05 - 00;09;07;10
Jordan
And I think it it was a great experience for me to be part of it, my first Bowl spot as well. And in terms of, measurement, you know, it's a little bit hard. You know, obviously sales were really positive. We're happy about that. But it's also the did this hit the mark? Is it memorable?

00;09;07;10 - 00;09;14;25
Jordan
And we were ranked among the top ten Super Bowl ads by a number of different you know third party independent outlets.

00;09;14;25 - 00;09;15;24
Jess
Wow and your first time on air too.

00;09;15;24 - 00;09;21;20
Jordan
Huge win and great credit to the team. Credit to our agency, McKinney. Credit to everybody who really stepped it up.

00;09;21;22 - 00;09;31;16
Jess
Yeah. Was there any time along the way of that development where something went wrong and you had to pivot? You had to sort of like start over? I mean, what went wrong?

00;09;31;18 - 00;09;57;06
Jordan
What went wrong? Well, I don't know, anything went wrong, but we had a lot of really, really good ideas. And again, credit to the agency. So I think everybody had their personal favorites, going in and I think we wanted to make sure that we were guest insight led in our selection for that path and, and how we optimized those scripts before we opened camera, because that's where and when you hire the celebrity and partner with them.

00;09;57;09 - 00;10;17;15
Jordan
So there's a lot of moving pieces before that happens. I don't want to say it was, but and maybe the challenge and maybe this is answering your question a different way, is we needed to kind of figure out a new process for developing creative because the, the way we measure, the way we validate Super Bowl creative is very different than the typical spot.

00;10;17;17 - 00;10;37;03
Jordan
You know, in the typical spot we try to understand, hey, did this message come through the branding right? Do people remember what the price point is? Hey, maybe change the VO here. In Super Bowl spot, you're hiring a different type of director. In our case, I can't remember. I believe he had recently shot, a very successful music video.

00;10;37;03 - 00;10;59;06
Jordan
So it's like a very different, you know, style director. And we're giving him, and the agency a lot of creative license, and you don't want to get back feedback. It's hyper tactical, are going to be disruptive to the flow. and we also hadn't done a ton of, this being our first Super Bowl spot, we've done a lot of pre flight or pre copy testing you know qual.

00;10;59;07 - 00;11;15;03
Jordan
But this is a very different animal. You're talking to people and one of the big questions mean you know is do you like this ad or do you just like that Ken Jeong is in it. And and if we if we don't get him, we haven't negotiated with him yet, does the whole thing fall apart? So there's a lot of really interesting nuances.

00;11;15;03 - 00;11;34;04
Jordan
So we had to onboard a different partner for the call that we hadn't used previously, someone who had experience, in a strategic capacity, working on Super Bowl creative, working with agencies. We used, we supplemented our normal copy testing protocol and had another methodology kind of running side by side to make sure that we were super informed.

00;11;34;06 - 00;11;50;22
Jordan
And so that was a little bit chaotic for me. I don't think anybody else got to experience it. My recollection was I was on vacation with my family. I think I was on a boat somewhere trying to, onboard new vendors to our, you know, AP system. And but, you know, it all worked great. And we had the right partners in place.

00;11;50;22 - 00;11;52;21
Jordan
And obviously the results speak for themselves.

00;11;53;06 - 00;12;09;14
Jess
Yeah, that's that's excellent. And there's so many things in there. But two points I'd love to kind of highlight is one is especially with creative everyone has their favorites right. It's just the nature of art. You like it or you don't and it doesn't make it right or wrong. It's just that we perceive things differently as human beings.

00;12;09;17 - 00;12;28;19
Jess
So that sort of opportunity to park the internal biases or our favorites and really let objectivity speak, has got to be so important for something as strategic and investment as a Super Bowl ad. So it sounds like you are effectively able to do that sort of park the bias.

00;12;28;21 - 00;13;00;11
Jordan
I think everybody has in this case has multiple biases, right? One is, oh, this one is the funniest or this one is the probably it's maybe not the funniest, but it's going to do the best for our business. Or this one is probably the easiest to produce, and this one is probably the least expensive. I think we are all kind of balancing all of those things, and in the end, the insights really helped us to determine the best path that kind of checked all the boxes was going to do the best, you know, the best have the biggest impact on our business, was going to have the story that kind of held together

00;13;00;11 - 00;13;10;29
Jordan
to ensure that the message resonated. I think in the end, we all were, you know, all the biases put aside. We all realize we had the right, execution was going to do everything we needed it to do. So.

00;13;11;02 - 00;13;36;12
Jess
Yeah. So important. And then I think the other piece is this notion of to be a Super Bowl ad, to be on that stage, it's got to be disruptive. But how many times have we seen ads that are disruptive? They're wacky, they're crazy, but they really don't help the brand. So I'm just curious how you guys thought about the impact in terms of driving sales in the short term and how the broader brand building is an outcome that you wanted to see?

00;13;36;12 - 00;13;38;03
Jess
How did you think about those two things?

00;13;38;06 - 00;13;59;19
Jordan
Yeah, so I would say two things come to mind. One is, Popeye's has a number of very distinctive brand assets. Obviously the jingles, the Popeyes orange, that the food shots are, you know, iconic. So all of that we wanted to be in the spot we kind of knew it would be. And in fact, the jingle at the end that Ken sings, I think that that wasn't even in the script.

00;13;59;19 - 00;14;14;28
Jordan
I think he improvised that. I mean, it was in the script end another way. So yeah, we knew it was going to be in there. So I think all those distinctive ads and that's the that's why you get someone like Ken to be on set because magic happens. so I think distinctive brands as it's part of it.

00;14;15;01 - 00;14;34;16
Jordan
And then I think the previous year, well, take a step back before we did all of this, as we once we decided, hey, we're going to do this. And we sold it into leadership and again, had to find the, you know, the budget to make it happen because it wasn't really in the plan. I said there's an opportunity for us to kind of get smart on Super Bowl creative generally.

00;14;34;19 - 00;14;53;24
Jordan
And so I reached out to a number of our partners who did meta analysis for us on what worked and didn't work from the previous year. What makes a good Super Bowl spot. And one of the things that came to mind, one of the learnings we had was around how you kind of have to have a celebrity. Everyone knows that, but you can do it really, really poorly and it be a disaster.

00;14;53;24 - 00;15;12;24
Jordan
And I think our benefit was, I think, if I remember correctly, 22, which is the prior year or 23, I I'm all confused. The prior year there were a number of spots with like really popular celebrities that just didn't have that fit. I think there was one, as I recall, it was like an auto ad with Will Ferrell, Will Ferrell.

00;15;12;24 - 00;15;28;13
Jordan
And this is to my previous point, if you put Will Ferrell in an ad, it always scores well because people like Will Ferrell, he's hilarious. But if you actually look at the data, I think a lot of people saw the ad and just were kind of distracted by Will and didn't understand why he was in the spot.

00;15;28;13 - 00;15;58;19
Jordan
And what had to do with this message may have been Volkswagen if I remember, and so you're getting some engagement, but it's not the kind of engagement you want. And I think we kind of heard that loud and clear, knew we needed to make a splash and I think almost all of the spots we looked at there might have been one exception was how celebrity kind of helping us to as a catalyst, but it needed to be, in support of a message that made sense with the story and made sense with this person, this or this actor.

00;15;58;22 - 00;16;17;23
Jordan
and some of the spots we looked at were, you know, celebrities as themselves, in the case with was Ken as this character, which, again, is a great way for Ken to come to life. and also kind of disconnects, you know, unless Ken is someone who we now know has a strong bond and connection with Popeyes. I don't want Ken Jeong talking about the wing.

00;16;17;23 - 00;16;28;16
Jordan
I want Ken to play an amazing, hilarious character that is so excited about doing because that's how people really connect with Ken. I think that was some of the learning we had leading into the execution.

00;16;28;18 - 00;16;37;27
Jess
Yeah. So can you introduce me to Ken for the podcast asking for a friend? No. Just kidding. I’m sure you get that a lot. Why not? Oh my God. Yeah.

00;16;38;00 - 00;16;41;04
Jordan
You mean Ken and Joel McHale? Who wouldn't want that?

00;16;41;06 - 00;17;01;05
Jess
Shooting the shit? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Okay, well, let's make it happen. excellent. Well, thank you for sharing that. I know that listeners love to hear, especially when you're on the front lines of some of that development of huge creative. And I found it hilarious and hopefully even more impactful for the brand, for sure. So let's turn to you now as a thought leader, you are a leader in your organization and in our industry.

00;17;01;05 - 00;17;18;24
Jess
And I'm just curious if you could talk to us a little bit about one of your more passionate points of view, which is we've chatted about is kind of the interaction and the role of insights and marketing within an organization. So I know that this is very relevant to a lot of our listeners, like how do you navigate some of that structure and collaboration?

00;17;19;00 - 00;17;22;14
Jess
What challenges do you face, and sort of what do you see as some of the successes?

00;17;22;14 - 00;17;42;13
Jordan
Oh yeah, and super important given prior to my tenure at Popeyes, there was no formal insights team. It was a little bit everyone kind of did their own thing and we were always insights led. But we didn't have a formal structure or team around that. So I thought long and hard about how to kind of build this team, what we wanted to stand for.

00;17;42;13 - 00;18;05;05
Jordan
I think one of the things that I learned at McCormick certainly was the importance of being a business consultant and objective voice of your consumer in the office. Right? So you always want to have is to have your consumer, your guest, in our parlance, have a seat at the table. And myself and my team, we're the ones who kind of bring that.

00;18;05;05 - 00;18;25;07
Jordan
We're merely the conduit to those insights to ensure that we're using the data that we have, the insights to drive our business, to inform our strategy or to build our strategy. and I think it's too easy for insights, people to kind of get caught up in the research side of what we do versus the consultative side of what we do.

00;18;25;09 - 00;18;49;24
Jordan
And and I said this recently at TMRE, where I was sitting on a panel with, very, very smart gentleman from IBM who's very, very data heavy, and I made some comment about how anybody can run a survey. And of course, this is like sacrilege in our business and certainly someone like you, it's sacrilege. And what I mean is there are tools and there there are vendors like you and your team that we can lean on for support in those respects.

00;18;49;26 - 00;19;14;11
Jordan
But the element and the part that I'm supposed to bring to the table is having a deep understanding of our business, having a deep understanding of the our 3 to 5 year strategy, understanding what the objectives are of my particular team in this particular instance, connecting those dots and then helping to take those data and insights that we collect in partnership with you or others and bring it to life in a story driven way so that everybody can wrap their head around it, actually action against it.

00;19;14;11 - 00;19;33;13
Jordan
And I think it's too easy for insights people to be really excited about all the learning, but never really drive to that final action. and to get too caught up in the process and not recognize that our goal is to kind of be those business consultants. So I think that's kind of the first piece in the way my team tries to orient ourselves.

00;19;33;16 - 00;19;59;14
Jordan
and to that extent, we've embedded ourselves into the marketing team, the category team, to ensure that we're partnering with those folks from day 1 or 0, even on a project or a white space exploration, and then identifying areas where we can enhance the strategy, enhance the perspectives, whether those are business questions or consumer questions, and then build that plan to kind of go along with, the work that they're doing.

00;19;59;16 - 00;20;27;16
Jordan
And I think the second piece is tied to that, which is building those alliances with our marketing peers and other cross-functional partners. it's easy for me to think that insights are important. I mean, it pays the bills, but what I really need are my peers and have other people within the organization advocating for myself and my team and what we do and demanding that we continue to kind of have that seat at the table.

00;20;27;16 - 00;20;47;17
Jordan
And luckily, I am in an organization where that is not a problem. You know, luckily, I work with people who want to partner with insight, who believe in the power of insight, who want to have guest insight driven strategies. And, you know, the learning for me. And I guess the advice for all of our listeners today is, you know, and this is for me.

00;20;47;17 - 00;21;09;26
Jordan
So I don't want to, you know, throw this anybody else. But like, I don't want to work somewhere where I have to convince them that they need to have an insights team like that's not what happened. Popeyes was, you know, jazzed about it to use some New Orleans language. but, you know, I'm happy to be in a place where we need to kind of, you know, advance the agenda and evolve the team.

00;21;09;28 - 00;21;26;24
Jordan
But at a fundamental level, you need to kind of be invested in this in the premise. And I know for, my peers in other contacts and colleagues, that's not always the case. A lot of times there are organizations where insights a little bit of like a rubber stamp to keep somebody happy or to make this Wall Street think that we care.

00;21;26;26 - 00;21;46;15
Jordan
but really, it's a sales driven organization. Let's just say, and so for me, as I think about, you know, my career, a I'm very happy at Popeyes, which is great news. But I think the learnings also is making sure that I continue to be in an organization that values that and puts insight first and that I can grab that baton and take it to the next level.

00;21;46;15 - 00;21;50;13
Jordan
But not really interested in convincing you I need to exist.

00;21;50;16 - 00;22;11;28
Jess
Sure. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, we've both been in the industry now, whatever, a couple decades, which is terrifying to think of sometimes. But, you know, I think that the, the role of insights has, has evolved where we used to be just the people that delivered data. And now, thank goodness we are we're asked to bring a more strategic mindset.

00;22;11;28 - 00;22;32;12
Jess
So what do we actually do with the data? How does that impact different decision making? And more importantly, how can we translate that into information and decision points that our different stakeholders can make. So not just marketing but finance and supply chain and oh my gosh, you have so much from franchisees and all these things like there's so many different stakeholders to the information.

00;22;32;15 - 00;22;50;10
Jess
So it's insights professionals, I think that were almost forced to be very multi-disciplinary, right, where we have to be able to put on all those hats. And I think that it's a challenge our industry, by and large, has taken on, wholeheartedly. But we absolutely especially at Dig believe, you know, data does not equal decisions. You need to ensure that it has actionability.

00;22;50;10 - 00;22;52;06
Jess
Otherwise, what's the point of insights function?

00;22;52;06 - 00;23;11;02
Jordan
100%. Actionability is key. And the one thing I would add is, you know, you talked about the evolution of going from like data delivery to being insights partners. I think we're not really there yet. But as AI becomes more prevalent, I think it's only going to up the demand for the insights people to be adding something strategic.

00;23;11;02 - 00;23;30;08
Jordan
On top of that, there's no more need for me to crunch the numbers or to do these, you know, analysis on large sets of qualitative whatever. That's all done for us now or soon to be done. So where do I add value? How do I continue to kind of enhance those projects. And I think that's continuing to kind of move along that curve and being strategic and consultative.

00;23;30;10 - 00;23;46;27
Jess
Yeah. And so what's your kind of quick take on on that, Jordan. Because this idea of AI is really going to drastically change our industry. It already is. But what are some of the characteristics or qualities you think that insights people really need to embrace and embody in order to make the most out of this next chapter?

00;23;46;29 - 00;24;07;12
Jordan
Yeah. I think it's about being continuing to be really curious. I think that's a part of this equation that AI is not going to be able to solve for us the human curiosity and continuing to kind of always push a little bit further, you know, and I'm no scientist. I don't know how it all works, but it's all rather impressive.

00;24;07;12 - 00;24;31;17
Jordan
I use it a lot in my personal life just to write like gag emails to my family. And it's spot on. It's really great. but it's still drawing on something that exists. And so what's the next thing? Where's the white space? why are people behaving a certain way? And so even if the AI can kind of pull it all together and tell me a story, it's not going to get me the true human emotional underpinnings of what's happening.

00;24;31;20 - 00;24;49;17
Jordan
so I think we have to continue to, you know, strive to kind of add that beyond the strategic and the business overlay that we're going to be adding and the partnership and the storytelling and just talk about actionability. I think, you know, what my boss always says, you know, we are not running a university here. This is not just learning for learning sake.

00;24;49;19 - 00;25;07;17
Jordan
he said that to me once and stuck with me. It's just it's so true. Like, and and I'm a I'm a curious person. I like to read. I like to learn new things. I like to have, you know, I've varied interests. But when we're in the office, the goal is to drive change and to drive growth. and so you got to that's a part of this equation I don't think AI is going to do for us.

00;25;07;17 - 00;25;14;19
Jordan
And if they do, it's Terminator 2 and we're all dead. So hopefully, hopefully we still have a role here.

00;25;14;21 - 00;25;23;11
Jess
Amazing, we’re definitely keeping that clip in there. What's your hot take on the future of the QSR industry? A lot’s going on.

00;25;23;14 - 00;25;45;00
Jordan
Oh my gosh. lots going on. I listen, I, I, you know, I don't want to opine on our competitors. I know there's a lot of really exciting stuff for Popeyes coming along. you know, I can't share too much, but obviously we're really excited about wings. A lot of really exciting things there. Some cool stuff happening with sandwich this year, so I don't want to get ahead of myself.

00;25;45;00 - 00;26;03;12
Jordan
It's not my that's a little bit outside of my pay grade to break the news. But we're very excited about what's going on. And and listen, you know, we've we've been part of kind of a really exciting time for QSR. Like this sandwich of 2019, 2020 changed how QSR kind of looks and feels to our guests every day.

00;26;03;12 - 00;26;15;15
Jordan
And Popeyes is answering the call. And you know, we kind of started that craze, but we're kind of continuing to keep our pedal on the metal, as I said before. And, kind of continue to drive to change and, and continue to enhance the experience for our guests. So we're excited about that.

00;26;15;20 - 00;26;34;13
Jess
Yeah. Okay. Well, we'll keep our eyes out for the news that you cannot drop, but it sounds like there is a lot in the hopper there. So let's get into the final dig. This is all about you as a consumer, as a person, as a human being. And so feel free to take off your professional hat. Although I think you're one of those people that there's not a two different versions of Jordan, I think we're probably getting the real deal.

00;26;34;13 - 00;26;40;12
Jess
But you know, so just answer these as you would. What's the last product or service you bought on impulse?

00;26;40;15 - 00;27;12;07
Jordan
The last product or service I bought on impulse? Oh my gosh. yeah. It's I, it's very it's very like niche. I, I bought a new well there was a very dangerous hockey accident recently. A player actually died on the ice, got smashed, and I met this young boy. Young man, I shouldn't say probably early 20s, who developed a undergarment for hockey that has a, like, a neck protector built into, like, the cold gear that you wear underneath your gear to play hockey, I should mention.

00;27;12;10 - 00;27;13;08
Jordan
Otherwise, it's very strange thing to buy.

00;27;13;08 - 00;27;13;22
Jess
Yeah.

00;27;13;23 - 00;27;31;14
Jordan
Very impulsive, yeah. So that was it. And I thought it was really cool is like entrepreneurial. He was just another player who kind of saw this opportunity. And people were buying these like, one pieces, but no one wears them. So having it built in I thought was really, really clever and so kudos to him.

00;27;31;17 - 00;27;47;27
Jess
Good. Yeah. And increasing safety. Really impulsive. I don't play hockey. Okay. how about a category or a brand or a product that you could rationalize any price point for? You just have to have it in your life.

00;27;48;00 - 00;28;06;12
Jordan
Oh my gosh. Cetaphil. It's, like a face cleanser, right? If people always say, if I'm on the desert island, what's the one thing. I need to wash my face, I just feel very out-of-sorts and not ready for the world. I have, like, a little emergency bottle that I keep in my laptop bag, so it's always right near me.

00;28;06;14 - 00;28;21;04
Jordan
you say any price, I do get a little bit price sensitive, so if I see a good price, I'll buy like the entire shelf. And I always imagine a day when they go out of business or who knows what happens. And then what am I have to find a new face wash? Like I can't even imagine. I don't want to do that.

00;28;21;04 - 00;28;25;00
Jordan
So please, whoever you are, Cetaphil people keep doing that.

00;28;25;02 - 00;28;40;13
Jess
They're definitely listening. And I love the mention of the desert island. I always joke with my husband about that because we're, like, obsessed in our family with lip balm. We just one of those families always has to have it. And whenever we watch those survival shows and they're like, I brought a machete, I brought a fire starter. I'm like, lip balm 100% for my survival.

00;28;40;13 - 00;28;40;22
Jess

00;28;40;29 - 00;28;43;04
Jordan
I would be starving, but I would look great.

00;28;43;07 - 00;28;59;19
Jess
Well, this isn't vanity, this is hydration. Well, I love this one. I can't wait to hear how you answer it. Brands have distinct personalities, as we know. So what's a brand that you would love to date, and what's a brand that you would love to marry? They don't always have to be the same brand.

00;28;59;19 - 00;29;00;27
Jess
I mean, let's be real. Yeah.

00;29;00;29 - 00;29;27;16
Jordan
Oh my gosh. I would marry Apple. I love being in their store. It's just it's all so neat and tidy. A brand I would date Red bull. I had, I had the opportunity to attend, F1, the Red bull team. I got to tour the pit with them. A it was exciting. It was fast, it was loud, but it was so technical.

00;29;27;16 - 00;29;44;14
Jordan
And I was so impressed by everything they do. And then you think about how expansive that brand is. Obviously the product, but how they've owned, the X games and, Felix Baumgartner, like, flew up to the moon and, and jumped off of it or something. And I was on the edge of my seat watching that. It was so insane.

00;29;44;17 - 00;29;49;16
Jordan
Like I when you say date, like, maybe for like a minute, I think I would, I would tap out real quick.

00;29;49;18 - 00;29;58;12
Jess
Yeah, yeah, that'd be a lot to keep up with, but also just somewhat unpredictable, where maybe you could get a little more stability in the cleanliness of Apple. It's a good dichotomy there, right?

00;29;58;15 - 00;30;12;29
Jordan
Like you want to go to Vegas for a couple days. You don't want to live in Vegas. No offense to people who live in Vegas, but I feel like that's the Red bull equation. It's like, am I? Also, it's not really fair. When I think about Vegas, I don't think about Henderson, Nevada. I think about like the strip and like, God knows what's happening there.

00;30;12;29 - 00;30;16;19
Jordan
It's great for like 48 hours, but no one lives there, I guess.

00;30;16;20 - 00;30;19;22
Jess
I think you're worrying too much about what the Vegas residents are going to think.

00;30;19;22 - 00;30;28;23
Jordan
The Vegas lobbiests sort of come after me. So by the way, Vegas lobby, like Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro, and I don't need them knocking on my door tonight.

00;30;28;25 - 00;30;35;12
Jess
well, I think we talked around the Super Bowl. You know, my last trip to Vegas was one of sadness and despair. So,

00;30;35;23 - 00;30;55;19
Jordan
You know the feeling, and. But listen, what I said to you is you have to enjoy. I've been to a couple of losses myself. I'm a Patriots fan. I shouldn't complain, but. And neither should 49ers fans. Okay, but you got to go and enjoy the experience and just be happy to be there. And and next year if it's if either of our teams are going to be in the Super Bowl again, it's not going to be me.

00;30;55;22 - 00;30;58;21
Jordan
It'll be the Niners. So enjoy.

00;30;58;24 - 00;31;07;14
Jess
Thank you. I gave me a little bit of, wind in my sails. so finally, just to wrap us up, what keeps you inspired at work?

00;31;07;16 - 00;31;27;06
Jordan
What keeps me inspired at work. I love my brand, I love Popeyes. You know, I was thinking about the old hair club for men president. I'm not just the president. I'm also a client I love. I was a Popeye super fan before I got the job. When I interviewed at Burger King, I jokingly said, this is all just a ruse to get me one step closer to the culinary team at Popeyes.

00;31;27;09 - 00;31;48;13
Jordan
And it all came to it all came true. So I love the brand. I love what we do, I love the product, but I also love my team. We have very like fun. It's a fun, energetic, fast paced category, and it's an energetic, fast paced team that I work with. I don't think I realized how how much I liked being in that type of environment, particularly being in a fast paced org.

00;31;48;15 - 00;32;07;26
Jordan
you know, CPG tends to be a little more conservative, a little a little slower paced, and that was fine when I was there. but Popeyes has, kind of really changed, a lot of the dynamics for me, how I work. And it's been really fun and my office is in Miami. Can't beat that. You know, every time I step in there, it's like a little bit of a party.

00;32;07;26 - 00;32;09;08
Jordan
So it's great.

00;32;09;10 - 00;32;16;06
Jess
That's fantastic. So pleased that you could join us today. If you could just close this out with a quick jingle. I'd like to hear from you.

00;32;16;08 - 00;32;29;15
Jordan
Oh my gosh. But my mom was here and she's in the other room. She would remind everyone that I. I failed miserably at ear training. I studied music in college and singing is not my jam, but love that chicken from Popeyes.

00;32;29;17 - 00;32;31;05
Jess
That was so Harry Connick Jr.

00;32;31;12 - 00;32;36;29
Jordan
I'm going to get sued. I think I'm going to get sued for doing that. But here you are.

00;32;37;01 - 00;32;46;23
Jess
I love how many boundaries we've pushed in this short conversation. But thank you so much for joining us. I know that our listeners loved it. I feel like I could talk to you for hours. Thank you for giving us some of your time.

00;32;46;23 - 00;32;48;19
Jordan
My pleasure. Thank you.

00;32;48;22 - 00;32;53;18
Jess
Yeah. Until next time, guys. Thanks for joining.

00;32;53;20 - 00;32;58;24
VO
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