The Campaign

Since its inception in 2004, KFC 3on3 has been the most well-known teenage basketball tournament in China with the coverage of more than 500 cities and over 1.3 million teenagers (aged from 16-19) participated in. It has brought outstanding brand awareness to the KFC brand for years among teenagers.   However, in 2014, we were faced with an unprecedented challenge. In the year of the World Cup, the entire world was focused on soccer, and millions of brands spared no money and efforts to grab this golden opportunity to join in the soccer carnival and get young consumers’ attention. Hence, when the young Chinese consumers put all their attention to soccer, anything irrelevant to soccer may be easily neglected. Not to mention that this year’s KFC 3on3 grand opening was happening only days before the World Cup final.

Results

In the year of the World Cup, when the entire world was focused on soccer, basketball seemed to have disappeared. How could KFC 3on3 Basketball Game turn the situation, make the world look to basketball again, and raise KFC brand awareness? We came up this idea – Play basketball on a soccer field! On June 19th, 2 weeks before the KFC 3on3 grand opening, we launched the topic on Hupu forum, the most popular online sports forum with lots of soccer fans and basketball fans, and led the discussion of the feasibility of a 11on11 football game on a soccer field. On the same day, the topic was forwarded to several other popular sports forums (such as, Tianya, Xici.net, Sina sports forum, iFeng sports forum, and etc.) and raised more attention and discussion. We also created the hashtag #Play basketball on a soccer filed# on Sina weibo, and the influential CCTV sports show host Yu Jia also joined the discussion. When it became a popular topic on social media, we triggered the second round discussion by reposting the discussion through KFC official Weibo account, KFC 3on3 official Weibo account and Yum official Weibo account. On Jun. 21st, the official teaser video, “Basketball Counterattacks Soccer” was released by KFC 3on3 official Weibo account, indicating the opening of the core event. On Jul. 6th, we turned the soccer field of Beijing Dongdan Stadium into the biggest basketball court in China. Basketball players from Beijing and Guangzhou were invited to play this 11 vs. 11 basketball game. On the game site, Mike Sui, an internet star, and Yu Jia, famous CCTV basketball commentator, were invited to commentate the game. In the meantime, KFC 3on3 official website broadcasted the live game.

On June 19th, 2 weeks before the KFC 3on3 grand opening, we launched the topic on Hupu forum, the most popular online sports forum with lots of soccer fans and basketball fans, and led the discussion of the feasibility of a 11on11 football game on a soccer field. On the same day, the topic was forwarded to several other popular sports forums and raised more attention and discussion. We also created the hashtag #Play basketball on a soccer filed# on Sina weibo, and the influential CCTV sports show host Yu Jia also joined the discussion.

On the event day (July 6th), around 2000 people came to the site to watch the 11on11 basketball game, which is more than double of the number expected (800 people). The event attracted live coverage and reports from 31 media outlets (including CCTV 5), and reached over 253 million people, earning an equivalent media value worth RMB 16.6 million. At the same time, it caused quite a stir in social media. The hashtag #Play basketball on a soccer field# was read by over 5 million people on Weibo, and resulted in 30,000 discussions – an amount that was more than six times achieved by hashtags released by a competing brand which was an official partner of the World Cup. In addition, this event created the record of “the biggest basketball court in China” awarded by China Records.