The Brief

KFC, an international fried chicken restaurant chain, is firmly established in the Philippines as a mealtime destination. Driving business during non-meal hours was seen to be KFC’s biggest growth opportunity. To capitalize on this, KFC launched the Krushers, an ice-blended smoothie snack. The objective was to get teenagers, the primary snacking audience, to recognize KFC as a snack time destination, with Krushers as their preferred snack.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

Agency developed The Sweet Escape, a platform where teenagers could show off their skill at creating a sense of escape. All they needed to do was take a photograph enjoying KFC Krushers in the Philippines, but making the photo appear like an escape to another country. People could submit, view, and rate entries on the website. This became a platform for them to express their creativity, their adventurousness, their fresh perspective, as well as their desire to experience new and exciting ways to escape. The winners go on an actual trip to the country that they portrayed in their photo.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

The metrics from a previous KFC online promo was set as the benchmark, which The Sweet Escape exceeded by 243%.Over 4,000 photos were submitted, with viewers casting over 470,000 votes for their favorite entries. The Sweet Escape Photo Contest was picked up by dozens of blogs and shared on social networking sites. In total, the campaign reached an estimated 47,470,518 people, corresponding to an earned media value 900% above the digital media budget. While the KFC Sweet Escape campaign was being run online, KFC Krushers sales were up by 154% versus the pre-campaign period.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

The notion of escape is a popular driver among teenagers. To appeal to this need, KFC positioned the Krushers as an encapsulation of this desire for escape. The campaign was hinged on how far we could spread our message to the youth. Its success was a result of them embracing the campaign, creating it, then spreading it among their peers. We also leveraged on their desire for peer validation. This prompted teens to campaign heavily through Facebook, Twitter and their blogs. Through the seamless integration with social media, we multiplied our efforts on a channel where teens were most present.