For the avoidance of doubt, the C stands for Chicken.

Challenge

Our brief was to win at Christmas by driving purchase of the new LTO (limited time offer), the ‘Stuffing Stacker’, whilst also driving cut through and increasing consideration for the brand at a time when every QSR in the category is competing for attention with their festive products.

From a brand perspective, KFC doesn’t have an obvious role in the season. In contrast to the department stores and supermarkets, the fashion or tech brands, there was no natural story for us to tell to link KFC to festive traditions. On the contrary, Christmas Day was the one day of the year when people all over the UK were definitely NOT eating chicken!

Insight

People only eat turkey at Christmas because it’s a tradition, not because it tastes better than chicken. Consumers cave to the festive pressure to eat turkey, but as the experts in chicken, KFC never will.

Solution

We noticed that every year at Christmas customers on social had the audacity to ask KFC to launch a turkey burger. So we decided to use their requests against them, reminding them that in this case the customer isn’t right. “You asked and we delivered” had become an expected and well-trodden convention of product launches in the QSR category. KFC didn’t want to give people what they asked for, expected, or even - controversially - what they wanted.

We launched sticking with chicken, boldly revealing that KFC has ignored all customer requests, encouraging people to stay loyal to chicken this Christmas by buying the Stuffing Stacker. 

Results

• Increased ad awareness by 6.8% vs pre-campaign
• Brand recognition of 96%
• Increased positive buzz by 41% year-on-year 
• Increased ‘exciting’ perceptions by 23% and ‘expert’ perceptions by 36% vs pre-campaign
• Increased consideration by 1.5% vs pre-campaign
• Beat forecasted incremental WPSA sales of the Stuffing Stacker by 53%