Nando's PERi-PERi Bukayo Saka_Yes Chef_Still (1)

Nando's cooks up a sauce with footballer Bukayo Saka

The 'Peri-Peri Saka' sauce and 'Yes Chef' mini film are part of the 'This Must Be The Place' brand platform created by New Commercial Arts

By creative salon

19 March 2024

Nando's has added a brand-new sauce to its starting line-up. Created by footballer, Bukayo Saka, the limited-edition sauce combines the Starboy’s favourite flavours with Nando's legendary Peri-Peri.

To mark the launch of Peri-Peri Saka sauce, Bukayo stepped in the kitchen to fire up a team of chefs – including one of Arsenal football club’s very own - to bring his creation to life. The 'Yes Chef' mini film is a playful take on a high-intensity kitchen setting in which Saka can be seen hyping up his team and mixing ingredients before adding the final touch to perfect his sauce flavour. Easter eggs throughout the film nod to his star quality on and off the pitch. Flavour and football fans alike are sure to be entertained.

“We had such a great time shooting this film said Director Josh Cohen through Sticker films. Bukayo really embraced the concept and his role as head chef! Whilst we created a kitchen world that nodded to a formal setting visually, the charm and humour throughout the film delivers a tongue-in-cheek entertainment that is uniquely Nando’s.”

The Peri-Peri Saka bottle is a feast for the eyes, too. Nando's brought in its talented friend and artist Reuben Dangoor to create the design, marking the first time an artist has designed one of its restaurant sauce bottles.

Teased with film-like posters featuring Dangoor’s chilli design on billboards around London from last week, Saka fans were left guessing what the football star was cooking up, whilst Nando’s teased a new sauce on its own channels. Peri-Peri Saka was finally revealed when ‘Yes Chef’ was shared this morning on Nando’s and Saka’s social channels.

To create Peri-Peri Saka Sauce, the winger worked with Nando's food team to combine his love of smoky BBQ and tomato with Nando’s distinctive Peri-Peri. The winning sauce is sweet and fiery with a little (free) kick, made with tomato, garlic and smoked paprika.

“Nando’s has been flying the (heat) flag for hot sauce since day dot," said Head of Brand Hannah Smith. "The launch of Peri-Peri Saka sees us bring our famous sauce to life in an exciting new way with our first-ever restaurant sauce collaboration. Not only will fans love the taste of the brand-new flavour, but we know they will love experiencing Peri-Peri Saka through the multi-channel campaign across Nando’s platforms too.”

Product design, OOH, social, and in-store experience have all worked to successfully merge three worlds together – football, food and design – and get fans talking. The short film ‘Yes chef!’ revealing the collaboration has now been viewed over 3.3 million times.

While of course it’s Nando’s and Saka, which comes with a certain amount of cultural credibility, unexpected collaborations are a regular occurrence now. But this collaboration went the extra mile through a mashup of rich insights across every touchpoint.

For example:

The bottle design was from artist Reuben Dangoor, the same designer who did the Arsenal football stadium wraps. The same design was used to tease the launch in fly posters.
There are language gags in the ‘Yes chef!’ film that only football fans will get.
There’s an in-store takeover at the restaurant nearest to Saka’s club Arsenal, with a shrine to the footballer including a receipt of his typical order.

Every element of the comms journey is infused with an ‘IYKYK’ energy, making it a long way from a token collaboration. This makes it easy for fans, brands and influencers to keep the conversation going, whether that’s Saka’s England teammates Declan Rice and Luke Shaw, Lioness Ella Toone or cultural leaders like I’m Just Bait with their 4.7m and 2.5m Instagram and TikTok fans respectively.

From 20 March, fans can enjoy the worlds of food and football coming together at Nando’s Holloway Road restaurant in London. Nando’s will be running giveaways and experiences to celebrate the sauce in the coming weeks too, so follow Nando's UK on IG, TikTok and X to make sure you don't miss out.

The Peri-Peri Saka sauce launch comes under Nando’s This Must Be The Place brand platform that celebrates the uniqueness of the Nando’s experience. The campaign was created in collaboration with Nando’s creative agency New Commercial Arts, media agency Zenith, and social media agency Born Social. The integrated campaign began roll out across OOH and Social from 11 March. BVOD goes live across channels from today.

Peri-Peri Saka is available at all restaurants across the UK and Ireland from today for a limited time.