From a $20,000 meteorite shaped like a chicken sandwich to a bonafide romance novella, the brand’s marketing stunts this year grabbed consumer attention with a distinct flavor of deep-fried weirdness.
Launching a chicken sandwich into space. Selling a 400-year-old meteorite sculpted in the shape of said sandwich… for $20,000. Writing a 96-page romance novella that somehow upped the absurdity factor, with a Fabio-esque take on brand mascot Colonel Harland Sanders as the star.
None of these are your average marketing plays because KFC is anything but an average brand, as it’s repeatedly proven throughout 2017.
The quick-serve staple, with the frequent help of creative agency Wieden+Kennedy, has evolved its marketing this year in ways that are equally odd and delightful, grabbing attention in an era of perilously short consumer focus. At the center of the strategy is Sanders, who was reintroduced to KFC’s advertising in 2015 to spur a turnaround for the brand, which he continues to do via a rotating cast of actors, comedians and even WWE superstars filling the role. This year, that talent’s been deployed for campaigns that have put clever spins on both fried chicken and digital technology, letting consumers lighten up during what are often humorless times.
“To stay true to our brand founder, we’re constantly coming up with creative ideas and evolving our approach so it always feels different and unexpected,” George Felix, director of advertising, KFC U.S., told Marketing Dive in a statement. “Channeling the Colonel’s voice and incorporating an element of ridiculousness […] is the main way we do that. Through everything, we remain authentic to the brand he created.”
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Source: Marketing Dive