The Brief

As far as the Malaysian fast food market goes, KFC is the old Colonel on the block. Trendy, cosy establishments that offered free WiFi like McDonald's and Starbucks, were lapping up the attention of young Malaysians. Starbucks already had 147 stores in Malaysia and promised 100 more in the next four years. McDonald's had 245 stores and were planning to have 275 by year-end. KFC led the market with a 44% share but were watched closely by McDonald's who were at 34%. KFC needed to ensure that they were still relevant to Malaysia's youth.

Creative Execution

It was a simple matter of leveraging on social and gaming culture, to make a social game out of not using your phone. The KFC Phone Stack is an app that allowed people to link their phones in a stack at KFC outlets. Touch the stack, and the link was broken - game over. Leave the stack untouched, and the more KFC rewarded you. KFC saw an opportunity to challenge this behaviour and to reassert itself as a brand that champions simple, meaningful connections around delicious food.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

It all started from an insight: that Malaysians spend a quarter of their waking hours on phones. KFC wanted people to reconnect with the people around them through good food. We challenged them to put their phones down at meal time. The KFC Phone Stack is an app that allowed people to link their phones in a stack at KFC outlets. Touch their phone, and the link was broken. Leave the stack alone, and the more KFC rewarded them. What began in stores soon spread everywhere. In one month over 6,000 So Good minutes were shared.

Results

With people's phones tucked away in a dining table corner, what was left? Time for meaningful conversations and connections. People used the app an average of 3 times in the first three weeks of downloading it. That's three definite good conversations. An average of 23 minutes were spent offline per month by those who used the app. That's 23 minutes of So Good moments. In one month, over 6,000 So Good moments were shared.