The Campaign

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.

The Brief

KFC wanted to get people to reconnect with the people around them, by challenging them to put their phones down at mealtime.

Results

The campaign was covered in local dailies, securing 286,409 PR impressions. People used the app an average of 3 times in the first three weeks of downloading it. An average of 23 minutes were spent offline per month by those who used the app. In one month, over 6,000 So Good moments were shared.

Execution

The app was made available to download in Malaysia on the Apple App Store and Google Play in October 2013. The KFC Phone Stack app linked phones together in a stack via the use of QR codes at KFC outlets. Then, the accelerometer and gyroscope made sure that the stack could not be touched when the game commenced. Touch the stack, and the link was broken - game over. Leave the stack untouched, resist the urge to answer texts and check your timeline, and the more KFC rewarded you. 30 minutes= free soft drink refill. 45 minutes = free potato wedges. 60 minutes = free chicken.

The Situation

KFC is the old Colonel on the block. KFC needed a way to assert its relevance to Malaysia's youth. Not the easiest of tasks given the fast-paced and "constantly online" nature of modern youth. 61% of the Malaysian population have access to the Internet, one of the highest amongst emerging markets (18% in Indonesia, 29% in Philippines). 27% have smartphones and on average, spend 20 hours online per week, 33% of which they spend on social media. KFC saw an opportunity to challenge this behaviour and to reassert itself as a brand that champions simple, meaningful connections around delicious food.

The Strategy

We turned the source of the problem, the smartphone, into the solution. It was a simple matter of leveraging on social and gaming culture, to make a social game out of not using your phone. We called it, the KFC Phone Stack. We got people to link their phones together in a stack – and then challenged them to leave the stack untouched for as long as they could resist. Hopefully, freeing up time for meaningful conversations and interactions over mealtime. Resist the urge to touch their phone, and they would be rewarded with KFC goodies when they hit time-based milestones.