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Some common complaints about the regional ad industry:
 
It lacks creativity; there’s no understanding of how to use online and digital media; and brands still aren’t engaging in a dialog with consumers, because clients in the Middle East – whether local or multinational – aren’t willing to risk relinquishing control of their communications.
 
While all of the above are valid points – backed up by the majority of regional ads – the new campaign for the Kuwait launch of international fast-food chicken joint Nando’s, created by Leo Burnett in Dubai, proves there are exceptions in all three areas.
 
The campaign runs the gamut from high-tech (using online social networks and videos shot on mobile phones) to extremely low-tech (a guy in a chicken costume) and is fun, dumb (in a good way), engaging and relevant. We like it. And – considering the low budget feel – we’re guessing the client does too.
 
The central idea of the campaign is that Nando’s is so great that it’s every chicken’s dream to end its days as an item on the restaurant’s menu. Clearly, that’s something of a stretch, but who can really claim to know what’s going on in a chicken’s mind? This isn’t a campaign that animal behaviorists would endorse, but we’re guessing that most consumers are smart enough to work out that it isn’t designed as an insight into poultry psychology. If not, the whole talking chicken thing is going to be problematic.
 
The campaign’s hero is Fred the Chicken. A hip-hop obsessed rooster who’s moved from a farm to the big city to pursue his lifelong ambition: To be chosen as a Nando’s chicken. He even uses the restaurant’s peri-peri sauce as cologne. He’s a passionate, fast-talking character whose slight lisp is the first sign that he might not be quite as cool as he believes he is. He sounds a bit like a cross between Ali G (who was clearly a huge influence on the character) and British boxer Chris Eubank.
 
The first that Kuwaiti consumers saw of Fred was when the guy in the chicken suit appeared in Avenues Mall – where Nando’s opened its first branch late last year – handing out scrappy amateurish flyers for Fred’s blog (chickenpower.org) headed “Cluck U Nando’s” along with his Chicken Power logo (basically a rapper’s hand gesture made by a scrawny chicken foot).
 
Anyone visiting the blog soon found out the story behind Fred’s appearance. The first entry (dated Nov. 12) was a YouTube-hosted video in the style of MTV’s Cribs in which viewers are invited into Fred’s “Love Shack” on the day he completes his Nando’s application form. Here is a happy chicken/musician/rapper about to fulfill his dream. The film also introduces visitors to Fred’s Facebook site.
 
The blog gives Fred’s complete story, from the merry rooster in the first video through the day when his dream is shattered by the Nando’s rejection letter, followed by the birth of Chicken Power, to his feud with Latino chicken – and hit with the ladies – Fernando Amore, who was accepted by Nando’s and has become Fred’s nemesis. (Fernando has his own blog where he introduces his business book Be The Cock.)
 
Both Fred’s blog and Facebook site are regularly updated by Leo Burnett with posts and videos reacting to visitors’ comments. When one visitor questioned Fred’s parentage – suggesting Fred’s father was a pigeon – a video response was quickly posted.
 
For brands looking for an example of how to have a conversation with consumers, the Facebook site and – to a lesser extent – the blog are an excellent showcase. There are numerous cute pop-culture references smartly aimed at Nando’s youthful target audience and Fred’s showdown with Fernando Amore in an underground car park is a laugh-out-loud-funny moment of bathos.
 
The campaign also incorporates a MySpace page showing off Fred’s musical talents, with a video of his latest track “Do The Cluck” which we’re guessing is the most expensive element of the campaign so far, being a more professionally shot clip than those on the other sites. It’s a psychedelic, cheesy video accompanying a deliberately (we think) silly rap track. The video was e-mailed to several of Fred’s most vocal online supporters before its release and many of them are now hosting it on their own high-profile (among Kuwaiti bloggers, at least) blogs.
 
The only traditional above-the-line element to Fred’s campaign so far has been an advertorial interview in a couple of Kuwaiti publications popular with students in which Fred explains a bit more about his background and the Chicken Power campaign.
 
The success of the Nando’s campaign, obviously, relies heavily on the character of Fred. And this is where the Ali G influence is significant. Like Sacha Baron Cohen’s character, Fred is convinced he’s hipper than he is. But rather than coming across as obnoxious and arrogant, he’s a sympathetic, likeable figure that has you rooting for the undercock.
 
The campaign will also require continued interaction from consumers. At the moment, they are the ones driving its direction (the Fernando-Fred fight, for instance, happened because that’s what visitors to the blog voted for). There may be a danger that the novelty will wear off after a few weeks and leave Fred stuck in online limbo.
 
But that risk is also the beauty of this campaign. There’s an equal (in fact, we’d say better than equal) chance that views of the various sites will snowball and create a genuine regional Internet icon along the lines of Burger King’s The King or Subservient Chicken (which Fred stresses he “ain’t” in one of his videos) and that more and more people will want to get involved in the evolution of the campaign.
 
Either way, it’s much more interesting than a simple Nando’s Kuwait homepage listing its menu, or a few print ads announcing the chain’s arrival (although these were, of course, another area of the agency’s work for Nando’s) and it is likely to attract far greater custom for the client.
 
We wouldn’t be at all surprised if Chicken Power picks up a few awards in 2008. The campaign kept our attention for the better part of an hour, which is about 7,200 times longer than most campaigns we see. Both the agency and client deserve credit for a standout job.

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