El Jannah appoints Emotive, kicking off the partnership with a legendary chicken giveaway (and some very concerned Taytas)

Australia’s favourite Lebanese charcoal chicken restaurant, El Jannah, is turning up the heat from 2 March, launching an integrated earned campaign that will see the brand give away 100,000 whole charcoal chickens complete with its iconic garlic sauce nationwide, a $2 million investment in loyalty and brand growth. It’s an investment so big, it’s brought some of El Jannah’s grandmothers out of retirement to advise against it. Who gives away chicken this good?

Led by El Jannah, with creative agency Emotive spearheading creative and content, the multichannel campaign combines a high-impact customer offer with culture-led storytelling, positioning the giveaway as both a growth lever and a defining brand moment.

At the centre of the creative are three authentic Lebanese-Australian grandmothers, or “Taytas” reacting with disbelief at the scale of the promotion, certain it must be too good to be true. Across social-first content and hero executions, the Taytas question the logic of giving away so much chicken, amplifying the magnitude of the offer while reinforcing El Jannah’s family roots and heritage.

El Jannah’s Chief Marketing Officer, Adam Issa said, “This initiative was designed to balance brand storytelling with measurable performance outcomes, we wanted to make March legendary. This is about rewarding our community, driving trial at scale and reinforcing what makes El Jannah iconic, which is our charcoal chicken and mouth-watering toum (garlic sauce)”.

“Emotive’s creative taps into culturally recognisable truth, that no grandmother would ever approve of giving away this much food. By dramatising that tension, they were able to spotlight the scale of the offer in a way that feels authentic to the brand” he said.

Emotive Head of Earned Creative, Jess Cluff, added: “When El Jannah told us how much charcoal chicken they were giving away in a week, we genuinely thought they’d made a typo. So we wanted to lean into that and who better to do it than the ones who lovingly scold us and warn us against silly decisions – a bunch of no-nonsense, straight-talking grandmas? Working with real Taytas was also a clever way to stand out and fight through deal fatigue on social.”

Founded in 1998, El Jannah has built a cult following around its charcoal chicken, marinated in a signature blend of herbs and spices and cooked over charcoal, paired with its closely guarded family-recipe garlic sauce.

Customers can redeem a free whole chicken by downloading the El Jannah app, and join the Legendary Rewards program. Existing app users can also score a free chicken by referring friends and family. Guests are encouraged to get in quick, while stocks last.

The fully integrated rollout spans earned, social, digital, in-store and owned channels, with the Taytas acting as the connective creative thread across all touchpoints. Paid performance agency Magic played a key role in scaling the campaign across digital channels, driving reach, efficiency and app growth.

View the spots here