Creative Execution

First, he got commitment from the client to approve campaign creative at any time of the night for the entire World Cup. Second, he worked with some of China’s leading mobile publishers like Netease, Today’s Headline, and Tencent News to pre-book space ahead of time. Third, he got the client’s mobile creative agency to create a series of templates that he could easily modify himself overnight. Finally, he sat down in his own living room, in front of his own TV, and proceeded to wait for the perfect opportunity.

The opportunities came rolling in! He responded with near instant creative across China’s hottest sporting sites, getting new creative online within an hour of completed matches! The results proved how powerful one mobile phone could be. Adaptive contextual content delivered 5X higher CTR’s versus past campaigns. Delivery orders soared and we sold out the new burger before the final match! This campaign has become the gold standard at KFC, and secured mobile’s role at the heart of all future brand communications. Proof that effective media doesn’t require a TVC, a huge budget or fancy command center, to beat the largest sponsors of the largest sporting event in the world.

KFC presented our team with a ridiculous challenge – use the World Cup to launch a new BURGER, without actually sponsoring largest global sporting event. With 1% of the budget of an average official sponsor. We knew World Cup fans would be watching the matches throughout the wee hours of the morning – but critically we understood three key points: First, with a limited budget, the only way to reach these viewers during the matches would be through their phones. Second, to cut through the huge competitive clutter, KFC’s media would have to be the most relevant, contextual, and first to market. And finally, while KFC’s competitors would have command centers of multiple agencies, fancy multi-screen displays, bespoke social data feeds, and creative production specialist teams… KFC’s ‘team’ had just one man. Meet BK. With his own iPhone. And his own TV.