Nando’s Tom Blackburn on inaugural Chicken Shop Session: Brands ‘are built by the role they play in culture’

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From its South African roots to its mysterious Black Cards club sported by stars such as Ed Sheeran, Nando’s has a long and somewhat surprising relationship with music. When it came to extending its relationship to Australia, the restaurant chain needed something that would continue its legacy as a friend of the music industry.

“I’ve always been a firm believer that brands aren’t built from ads alone. They’re built by the role they play in culture,” Tom Blackburn, Nando’s head of brand and marketing ANZ, tells Mediaweek.

Held on Saturday at Nando’s Fitzroy on Melbourne’s Smith Street, The Chicken Shop Session featured local DJ and dance producer Nina Las Vegas, reggae-rock band Coterie, multi-genre singer-songwriter CHAII, and 20-year-old singer-songwriter ISHAN. 

The event marked the first step in Nando’s local music strategy and its declared commitment to supporting local artists.

‘We’re ready to accelerate the brand’: Nando’s brand journey in Australia

The Chicken Shop Sessions initiative follows an extensive effort by Nando’s in Australia and New Zealand to reclaim control of the brand. The original franchisee structure, established when Nando’s first entered the market in 1990, had caused the brand to drift away from its core values.

“At our peak we had close to 300 restaurants.” says Blackburn. “Unfortunately, the jeopardy of franchisees is you lose control of the brand slightly. And what we found that some of the franchises weren’t cooking the food properly, they weren’t treating staff properly. We were having some issues articulating the brand the way we wanted to.

“We spent the best part of the last 10 years buying back all of those restaurants, closing the ones that were no good, building stronger relationships with the franchises that aligned with our core values and sentiment of the brand and rebuilding our footprint.”

Now, he attests, “we’re at this trajectory in the Nando’s brand where we’ve got the right network of restaurants, they look amazing. And we’re ready to really accelerate the brand.”

Finding a place in the ‘cultural fabric’ 

Blackburn explains that the brand saw this integration as a meaningful opportunity to support the local music scene, which has been devastated by the gradual disappearance of major festivals, including this year’s Splendour in the Grass and Groovin’ The Moo.

“The great, big Aussie festival is disappearing,” he states. “What’s really important is that Australia and New Zealand are just so unique in comparison to the UK and US. To really move ourselves into the cultural fabric here, we need to understand what that is.

“One of the big things we see here is the strain on music at a grassroots level. Something like 1,300 live venues have closed since Covid. For us, that’s 1300 fewer opportunities for emerging talents, and it’s no coincidence we’ve chosen to play this event on the same weekend as what would have been Splendour In the Grass.” 

In fact, many of the Chicken Shop attendees were hopefuls left disappointed when Splendour in the Grass announced its cancellation of the 2024 dates earlier in March.

Blackburn describes the local music industry as facing a twofold problem: the reduction of “cultural experiences” for young Australians and Kiwis due to the dwindling live music and festival landscape, and the lack of opportunities for young talent to hone their craft and break-through.

“We’ve got this abundance of young music talent that aren’t getting the opportunities,” he continues. 

According to Blackburn, the Sessions concept was developed from a desire to address these issues by using Nando’s platform to elevate up-and-coming local talent, building on the success of its music-centric initiatives overseas.

“It acts over ads, from a brand-building perspective,” he says. “It’s [about] how we, as brands, make being a young person in Australia and New Zealand a better experience.”

“Those musicians get exposure, and everyone else gets a great experience.”

‘Music is one of the biggest articulations of creativity’: Authentic brand integrations

As far as the authenticity of Nando’s becoming a part of the local Australian and New Zealand music scenes, Blackburn is confident it’s true to the brand legacy, which began in 1987 in Johannesburg and has remained deeply involved in music ever since.

“Creativity is at the heart of what we do, and I think of everything music is one of the biggest articulations of creativity,” he says.

“Through to the Afro-Luso music that’s in our restaurants, we’ve always done so much in the music space. All the way to our friends like Ed Sheeran and Stormzy in the UK, Post Malone and Beyonce in the US, who we famously support.”

From its hand-painted logo by South African artist Marks Salimu to its ownership of one of the largest collections of African art, with over 29,000 original pieces displayed in its restaurants, one of the best testaments to this commitment is Flame Studios.

In 2021, Nando’s opened Flame Studios, an accessible recording studio and creative hub, at The Old Fort, Constitution Hill, a heritage prison in Johannesburg.

“It’s a space that is reserved for young emerging new talent in South Africa that need access to recording studios and they don’t have the means to do so,” Blackburn explains. “We’ve even done something similar under our Soho restaurant in London.”

The Soho recording studio, located on Frith Street, opened in 2018. It’s similarly free to use and meant to support London’s next generation of music artists.

In Australia and New Zealand, while Blackburn says the Chicken Shop Sessions represent a chance to help foster a “renaissance” in the local music scene and eventually become a pillar of it, he expects the trajectory to be “a slow burn.”

“There’s a lot of surface-level ways in which brands try to behave,” he continues.  “It starts with helping people at a grassroots level, not trying to create a branded moment of content. This shouldn’t be about the Nando’s brands, stamping everything like it’s a lunchbox branding. 

“This is about a long-term ambition to become a part of the cultural fabric of the music industry.

Ultimately, he believes, “we have to be reactive to the times whether it’s larger scale [events] like this, or it’s smaller, more intimate pop-up gigs at restaurants.

“We’re happy to flex to make sure we find the right thing.”

See also: Flying the coop: How Red Rooster shook off outdated perceptions to drive 40% growth

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Top Image: Coterie