Nando’s gets the temperature just right amid nationwide heatwave

Tuesday, July 19 was the hottest day in the UK’s history; a potentially big day for ice cream vans and Pimm’s, perhaps, but not the most obvious commercial opportunity for brands specialising in spicy food. Nando’s, nevertheless, ran an ad featuring its “Peri-ometer” – which equated the nationwide heatwave with its “Extra Hot” spice.

Data from YouGov BrandIndex shows that Ad Awareness scores for the South African chicken chain, which measure whether the public have recently seen advertising for a brand, rose from 9.3 to 15.6 (+6.3) between July 18 – 23. Not only did the public take notice, Impression scores for Nando’s, a measure of general sentiment, jumped by 10.3 points, from 14.8 to 25.1.

Over the same period, Recommend scores for the brand leapt from 10.2 to 17.0 (+6.8), while the metric tracking customer satisfaction increased from 18.7 to 23.8 (+5.1). The campaign performed well enough that Reputation scores, which track whether the public would be proud or embarrassed to work for a brand, edged into comfortably positive territory (from -1.7 to 3.6). Even Value for Money scores tripled from 3.2 to 10.5 (+7.3). In perhaps the most telling indicator of the ad’s success, the chain’s Index scores (a measure of overall brand health that takes the average of several combined metrics), inched upwards from 9.3 to 15.6 (+6.3).

It might be easy to assume that a brand specialising in hot food would have little to say in hot weather. But a little counterintuitive branding can go a long way. Nando’s Extra-Hot ad leveraged the restaurant’s existing assets to positive effect – at a time when the nation may well have preferred the weather to err more on the side of Lemon & Herb.

This article originally appeared in City AM