Chicken wings ripe for year-round marketing
Chicken wings' strong association with the Super Bowl represents an underused marketing opportunity that the industry could extend across the calendar year, according to David Jackson, chief operating officer of Simmons Foods and chairman of the National Chicken Council (NCC).
At the 2026 Chicken Marketing Summit, held July 27-29 at the Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida, Jackson said the industry already "owns" the Super Bowl when it comes to wings, with companies building up inventory ahead of the game and consumers strongly associating the holiday with the product.
But he argued that wings are made year-round and deserve promotional events tied to other occasions to help drive demand throughout the year.
He floated a range of concepts for companies to adopt, including wing brackets timed to March Madness, Halloween-themed "graveyard wings," Thanksgiving-adjacent turkey-flavored wings and "hangover wings" for post-celebration recovery.
He also suggested tailgate promotions positioning wings as an alternative to hot dogs at baseball and soccer games, floating the idea of "wing bats" — a nod to the shape of drumettes — as a nickname companies could use in stadium marketing.
"We as an industry will make you wings," Jackson said, encouraging companies to take up any of the ideas as they see fit.
NCC's role in Washington
Jackson's comments on wings marketing came during broader remarks on the NCC, which he said serves as the industry's unified voice before federal regulators, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), on issues ranging from labeling to legislative policy.