Church’s Chicken Names The Cartel Group As Flagship AOR.

Church’s Chicken, a division of AFC Enterprises, Inc. announced that it has selected San Antonio, TX-based The Cartel Group as the quick service chicken restaurant company’s advertising agency of record following a nationwide search. Church’s Chicken is the first quick service restaurant to name a multi-cultural agency as its flagship agency.

“Our goal was to select an advertising agency to best serve the unique needs of our customers – Hispanics, African-Americans and Caucasians,” said Church’s Chicken Chief Marketing Officer, Melinda Ennis-Roughton. “This was not an easy task as all of the agencies in the competition demonstrated an excellent understanding of our business and what we are hoping to accomplish with our new advertising direction. The Cartel proved to us that they were imaginative and resourceful in their strategic ideas for Church’s, a key factor in the selection process.”

Church’s Chicken began a comprehensive agency review in September 2003 and subsequently narrowed it down to three finalists including MIRROR, a subsidiary of Levenson & Hill, a collaboration of LatinWorks/Fuse/KB&P and The Cartel Group. Church’s Chicken was looking for a very unique type of agency, one that understands the dynamics of the quick service restaurant and/or retail industry in addition to having a deep understanding of and experience with multi-cultural market segments including Hispanic and African-American audiences.

“We are honored to be able to leverage our skill set to serve such a terrific brand in this groundbreaking, new direction. Both Church’s Chicken and The Cartel Group share a passion for reaching the urban marketplace in an innovative and culturally relevant way,” said Victoria Varela, CEO of the Cartel Group.

The agency’s responsibilities will include strategic planning, advertising development and media planning. The billings for the campaign are between $15-to-20 million. Levenson & Hill have been working on the transitional ad campaigns and will remain, along with Karat, the field media agencies.