KFC - Hot Rods

At a time when short term fads are bigger than long term fashion, appealing to the youth segment has never been tougher. We recognized this flirtatious nature of our audience when launching KFC Hot Rods and realized that we needed to immerse the brand in the prevailing pop culture. For Malaysian youth, that meant music and dance. The idea was a contest, “Shuffle your way to Melbourne”; a Melbourne-shuffle dance contest in a prominent high traffic area in Kuala Lumpur that created the required buzz for our launch.

What was our strategic communications challenge? 

The Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) category is in a stage of aggressively reacting to the economic downturn. Brands are busy discounting, bundling products and promoting to get more and more people walk in their stores. Success today is defined not merely by brand awareness and recall but more importantly by footfalls and ultimately, purchase. For many QSRs, it has become a matter of survival. It is in this uncertain climate that we had to make KFC Hot Rods a runaway success.

While the dynamics of the QSR category were being stretched by the economic downturn, the younger, hipper brand imagery of KFC’s primary competitor McDonald’s was slowly chipping away at KFC’s youth segment. While KFC still retains leadership position in the category, McDonald’s was stepping up competitive pressure to gain loyalty from the urban 15-24 year olds. This was a tricky dilemma as KFC had consciously targeted families rather than a niche youth audience. So while KFC became the more family hangout, McDonald’s over the years has begun to be seen more as a youth hangout.

KFC Hot Rods was specially developed to target this younger audience and bring them back into the KFC franchise. KFC Hot Rods are boneless Hot & Spicy chicken chunks with a delicious, crispy outer coating. It is positioned more as a snack than a meal. With this product, KFC hoped to capitalize on the highly mobile and fast-paced life of young Malaysians. This new product innovation is served on a skewer, providing them with the convenience to enjoy it anytime, anywhere.

What were our campaign objectives? 

1. Achieve 1 million KFC Hot Rod skewer sales within a 2-month promotional period.
2. Increase traction amongst youth market and build KFC perception as a brand that was relevant for the youth as well as families.

What was our big idea? 

“Unleash Your Inner Sizzle!”

How did we arrive at the big idea? 

Interesting youth trends and insights triggered the big idea:

•  Youth of today are often capricious and whimsical, depending on what piques their ever-changing interests. More and more, they crave platforms for self-expression – Friendster, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the list keeps on growing 

(Source – McCann Social Discovery)

• Music and its forms of expression are amongst the most frequent leisure time activities for youth 

(Source – Synovate Survey 2008, 18-24 years) 

• Hip Hop – the new youth attitude, is all about freedom, it makes people breakout of their boxes and expand themselves 

(Source - McCann Social Discovery, Issue 002) 

What was left was for us to fit the pieces of the puzzle together and link them in a meaningful way to our product. As it was apparent that our target especially appreciated expression in the forms of music & dance, we decided to build KFC Hot Rod as the perfect catalyst. We therefore likened its Hot and Spicy flavor to the youths burning desire for self-expression and demonstrated how it could be used to “release their inner sizzle’.

How did we bring the idea to life? 

To bring this idea to life, we latched onto a fast-growing dance trend – The Shuffle. The shuffle, originating from Melbourne Australia, is made up of variations of rapid heel-to-toe movement, the ideal platform for youth to express themselves creatively and individualistically via choreography of moves.

We embarked on a full-scale 5-star campaign, consisting of Above & Below-the-Line communication, fully synergized to the central theme – Unleash your Inner sizzle!

Part 1 – Revving Up Curiosity Amongst Our Target

We needed to give media and our target a glimpse into the consumption experience. An energetic Media Launch with a high-adrenaline Act of Launch ensued – whereby ordinary teenagers who consumed KFC Hot Rods, unleashed their inner sizzle by exploding into a sequence of Shuffling after taking a bite.

Simultaneously at a consumer level, a tactical TVC routed to the campaign Big Idea hit all major TV channels. Press ads were launched in key dailies, to introduce the new product and persuade readers to visit a nearby KFC to ‘unleash their inner sizzle’.

All of which were routed on the Big Idea.

Part 2 – Creating Food Appeal

A series of tactical radio ads were also developed to garner awareness and push trial. Two executions were aired across major stations:

1. One version focused on highlighting tangible product attributes of the new product innovation (ie hot & spicy flavour, crunchy outer layer encasing succulent tender meat)
2. Another version focused on highlighting the intangible product benefit (ie the power to unleash one’s inner sizzle). 

Outdoor, we invested in LRT in-train advertising. We leveraged on trains on-route to KFC outlets, by placing mouth-watering visuals of our product to appeal to commuters shuttling from one-destination-to-another, who may very well appreciate a quick & delicious pick-me-up.

A comprehensive list of eye-catching, in-store Point of Sale Materials (POSM) was also developed to support the launch. Leveraging on visual appeal, walk-in customers were greeted by a host of collaterals expounding on product attributes and encouraging trial. 

Part 3 – Engaging Youth Participation

To bring to life the shuffling experience to youth on-ground, we embarked on joint partnership with Fly FM & Hot FM to organise a ‘Shuffle Your Way to Melbourne’ Contest, with the Grand Prize consisting of a trip for two to Melbourne, the birthplace of the Shuffle. 

All interested participants needed to do was either upload their ‘Shuffle’ video onto the contest website or at any of the roadshow locations. With the aim of discovering the best shuffler in Malaysia, the contest was supported by : 

1. Online ads & radio promos : to garner interest and promote the contest, provide details on how to participate as well as updates on roadshow locations.
2. Website : providing comprehensive details to support the contest, facilitate participation as well as engage online users with a host of games and activities with instant prize carrots attached – eg. Virtual Shuffler & DJ Booth.
3. Recruitment roadshows : Carried out by the Fly FM Troopers & Hot FM Zoomers at over 60 locations.
4.  In-store POSM : to further bolster contest awareness.

Part 4 – The Culmination

Out of over 200 entries, 60 finalists were shortlisted based on popular vote for the Grand Finale Event at Sunway Pyramid main entrance. The top 20 had their videos uploaded for a final round of voting to determine the Grand Prize winner.

How do we know it worked? 

1. Two month campaign reached 6.7 million adults & pushed sales of over 3 million skewers of Hot Rods (Source – KFC Holdings ) – effectively 300% of the initial target set by Client – contributing to a 16% growth in the Snackables segment (Source – KFC Holdings Malaysia Bhd).
2. Quarter 4, 2008 Brand Image Tracking Survey, indicated a positive boost in the Teen’s past 3 month’s incidence in Chicken QSR of 3% (ie from 94—97%) which is admirable given a short 3-month duration (Source – Q4 2008 BITS for KFC Holdings, Nielsen)– hence further building KFC’s appeal amongst a highly impressionable target audience.
3. To testify to the level of appeal the campaign had amongst the target, a group of Malaysian students created their very own interpretation of the ‘KFC Hot Rods – Shuffle TV Commercial’, uploaded on YouTube, with over 10,720 views (Source – YouTube.com).
4. The online contest generated 31,335 unique supporters, with the final round of online voting to determine the Grand Prize capturing 10,733 votes over a period of 5 days (Source – Carat Interactive)