While McDonald’s youth focused YouTube channel went as quickly as it came, KFC’s punt in the influencer space is showing signs it could be here to stay after the first series of its music based channel saw 96% favourable brand sentiment among those viewers who tuned in to watch.
KFC’s 99 Gigs campaign launched in March this year, and the brand brought on board Callux and Charlotte de Carle, a YouTuber and an Instagrammer, to co-create a youth focused YouTube series called ‘KFC Presents: Around the world in 99 Gigs’.
Each episode of the series was posted on YouTube every other week, and the hosts were sent in search of cool and quirky undiscovered musicians from around the world to engage the hard-to-reach youth audience.
The 12-part series reached 6.2 million views in total, and KFC is now planning the launch of a second series. Speaking to The Drum Meghan Farren chief marketing officer at KFC UK & Ireland at Yum! Brands, explained how having a clear role for the channel in the overcrowded content space, helped the brand achieve success.
“We were very clear on the role of what that channel was trying to do and very clear in its scope and who we were trying to produce content for,” she said. “Being super clear on how you want to use it [YouTube] is important. Also, we were very strict on the brief to the hosts, so they were clear on the job that they were doing and we worked very closely in partnership with them. I don’t know what McDonalds did and how they worked with their influencers but for us it’s been highly successful in engaging a youth audience.”
One ingredient in KFC’s recipe for success that sets it apart from McDonald’s axed ‘Channel Us’ attempt, is how the brand tapped into the trend of instant gratification as well as experiences. As part of the campaign, KFC fans could become a ‘99p VIP’ by claiming an offer on chicken via its loyalty programme Colonel’s Club. This gave consumers the chance to win gig tickets, following any purchase from its snacking menu as well as contest for the chance to join hosts Callux and Charlotte around the world.
Elsewhere, KFC is readying its latest BBH-created campaign set to launch on 28 November, which is the first push for the restaurant since introducing a new tone of voice and visual identity to better compete against the increased marketing budgets from the likes of Deliveroo and UberEats. While specific details of the new campaign are yet to be revealed, KFC will be focusing on how it can reflect British culture, given that the brand is deeply tied to the American deep south, yet still maintain its heritage.
“We hope the new campaign will help us tell our brand story,” continued Farren. “We have a true story in the Colonel and brands would kill to have the actual real heritage that we have so you will see us tap in to that a little more but also in a fresh and contemporary way.
"[It is about] making sure the brand is relevant in our consumers lives today and that it is in British culture, which is something that we are focusing on and investing in now…You will see as our marketing rolls out that rather than just talking about our food we will try to connect with our consumers in an emotional way in a way that is relevant to what is going on in UK culture today."
Convenience is another key area for KFC, specifically how the meaning of it among consumers is changing rapidly since the introduction of fast food restaurants half a century ago. While the drive-through was once the height of service for consumers, advancements in technology have led them to demand more from brands, particularly in the food industry.
That’s why KFC has been trialing a delivery service and launched an app to test different ways of ordering in its restaurants. While it’s still early days for the brand in the highly competitive delivery space, Farren said trials are going “extremely well” and are “driving incremental sales growth” in both areas.
“What we are trying to do is launch it at pace but in a way that is operationally sustainable. It’s about making sure the partners we use to toll out with are viable and will deliver a great experience to the customer. We can only go at the pace at which we can get the right partners signed up.”
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