Insight
KFC is an institution in China, but with success comes new challenges. How do you continue to bring newer, younger customers into the world of KFC?
As Mindshare began to analyse different audience segments across KFC’s existing customers (read, nearly everybody) – it noticed a unique gap across their daily recreational habits. While they tend to watch TV, use the internet, and are active on their mobile devices as you would expect – they clearly indexed well below the average when it came to video/mobile and PC games.
This was quite surprising, as the PC gaming market in China is enormous – and no game is more popular than the current #1 heavyweight, League of Legends. Every day, more than 80M Chinese log into League of Legends, a real-time strategy gaming realm where heroes, encounters, knighthood, magic, social connections, brotherhood happens. The gamers, also known as “summoners” spend two hours everyday in this virtual realm. Two hours when they were nowhere in the vicinity of a KFC store and unwilling to take a break from the gaming to order in.
The agency realised there was an opportunity for KFC to expand its customer base to include this younger, digitally savvy and connected – if a bit geeky – audience segment. But how could a mass brand recruit a significant niche audience convincingly?
Strategy
As the #1 quick service brand, it was clear that a partnership should start with China’s #1 game, League of Legends.
But critically Mindshare would have to approach the gamers in a way that didn’t just add value, but communicated in an authentic manner. Vanilla sponsorship and interrupting the gaming environment was about the worst thing it could do.
Working with Tencent Gaming the agency was able to understand in-depth the mechanics of the game itself, and identify the key requirements of dedicated PC gamers. This allowed Mindshare to pull together integration where KFC made an even better gaming environment.
This partnership would be truly across the line – ranging from retail to digital to live events and tournament participation.
Execution
The agency kicked the integration off with a launch of the partnership hosted for Tencent’s most dedicated gaming community who occupied an entire stadium!
And the very first service offered KFC a foot in the virtual door – by offering the world’s first in-game delivery service – with a single click gamers could easily order KFC delivery from within the game. There was no need to switch to the online ordering site or shift attention to their phones – KFC was available right there through the game with one click.
Mindshare worked with Tencent Gaming to identify a critical insight of playing League of Legends – or any online game for that matter. With all of the constant action, taking both hands away from the keyboard could prove disastrous for the players – so KFC stocked up the one button delivery ordering service with a special set menu designed for eating one-handed.
Supporting this integration was a massive offline effort that included League of Legends themed KFC restaurants across China – this brought the League of Legends experience to the masses. Customers at the restaurants could receive the full League of Legends experience – from cosplay performances to promotional materials.
This nation-wide campaign also included the first ever co-branded KFC buckets and limited edition codes for in-game virtual items, which delivered players exclusive benefits – another symbol of KFC’s commitment to the gaming community.
Results
As gamers arrived in droves to KFC outlets across China, the brand experienced some phenomenal results from the partnership.
The League of Legends integrated delivery service sold out of the special edition ‘gamer-friendly’ sets within ten days of launch – blowing away initial sales expectations for the partnership. The offline version of the combo set sold out of KFC restaurants in eight days – the fastest sellout in KFC history – FOUR TIMES faster than the average.
KFC’s total customer base grew by 5%, and average ticket sales have increased by 10% - an incredible feat for a brand as widespread as KFC in China. The themed stores saw a sales uplift of at least 35%.
And finally there was the buzz – not only did it generate 4X the average buzz volumes – it was overwhelmingly positive – with the only negative buzz simply stating “It’s not enough, we want more”.