Episode 156 - KFC The Recipe Run Reviewed by Dulcie Media, Abbott and Say It Now
Targeting Gen Z is difficult with TV and print ads, but KFC have decided to advertise to them through a clever in-game activation.
The Recipe Run fuses the famous fried chicken brand identity with an adventure in the world of Zelda. But, beyond crafty graphics and an interesting storyline, does this ad chosen for us by Contagious send a clear call to action?
How effective is a gaming bonus at driving real-world sales? And what did our guests Deborah Gbadamosi (CEO of Dulcie Media), Caitlin Nguyen (Head of Digital and Customer Engagement, Established Pharmaceuticals at Abbott), and Maria Cadbury (Global Director Of Strategic Partnerships and Commercials at Say It Now) think about it?
Watch the full episode to find out!
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Episode 156 - KFC The Recipe Run Reviewed by Dulcie Media, Abbott and Say It Now
Transcript is automatically generated, so not perfect, but you get the idea!
Tom Ollerton 0:00
Hello and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. This is a weekly show where brands discuss other brands' ads.
My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative. We're a creative effectiveness adtech platform. And thanks to our sponsors, Contagious, who helped find the ads each week. But before we see this week's ad, let's meet this week's guests.
Deborah Gbadamosi 0:46
I'm Deborah Gbadamosi. I'm the CEO for Dulcie Media.
Caitlin Nguyen 0:49
Hi, I'm Caitlin Nguyen. I head up Digital and Customer Engagement for Abbott Laboratories.
Maria Cadbury 0:55
Hello. I am Maria Cadbury. Global Strategic Partnerships, and I've spent the last three years working with Say It Now.
Tom Ollerton 1:02
What a panel! I am very much looking forward to this. Alright, KFC, what have you got for us?
How many votes would you give this out of five? One, two, three...
Maria Cadbury 3:17
Oh, I don't know. A five.
Tom Ollerton 3:20
That's a split! Can someone explain to me exactly WTF is going on with this campaign?
Deborah Gbadamosi 3:26
What I understood is that if you made, created a recipe, like your own KFC recipe. You could then order the original flavour KFC once you've made your own in the game.
Maria Cadbury 3:38
I made the assumption, the unique code would unlock something, but then maybe it gets you a free drumstick? But it's definitely a unique code. So it's trackable, but it's also... use in one way or the other, either into the game or into KFC itself, which is not clear to me in the game as I watch it, which it is.
Caitlin Nguyen 3:57
It wasn't really clear, like, in terms of the mechanism, right? For this, you know, so-called conversion purchase, right? So it's like, you know, for me, when I saw it, it was more like, maybe I can go onto another tab and order it, right? But I didn't see at least... On first glance any sort of either promotion or deal, or something like that. But it will be interesting if they did have some sort of a link embedded in it to say, "Wouldn't you want to..." You know, 'click now,' etc. So I didn't see that call to action. So it would be interesting if they could, you know, somehow put that in.
Maria Cadbury 4:32
I personally interpreted that they've taken the Zelda game and they've adapted it to make it KFC friendly. So the bear then becomes, then KFC himself, and then instead of finding what they would before, which is tools or whatever else, they sort of go and find... It's all about finding the recipes. So it feels like they have taken a well-known game and personalized it for the brand, which I think is fantastic. Like all of these are just around the ingredients, the recipes.
Deborah Gbadamosi 5:00
I really liked it. I think I'm not entirely sure how well KFC tracks against a younger generation, and I'm assuming that they were probably trying to hit Gen Z, like they're trying to refresh the brand and be relevant to this new audience. And if that was the objective, then I would say they definitely achieved that.
Caitlin Nguyen 5:19
I would love to know the so called, you know, attribution to e-commerce, right? Since there was sort of that order mechanism that purchase mechanism. Were they hoping, kind of test, what could be the uplift, right? Within a week, right? What could be the uplift? It wasn't quite clear from those stats that we saw... 44% of orders were placed on desktop. Was that attributed to this campaign? That would be really, really interesting.
Maria Cadbury 5:40
Actually, to my nine-year-old twin boys actually last night... Bloody well, loved it! And with that now they want KFC. What they're doing is deepening the brand engagement at every single moment of the game's play because you're getting the food, the recipe, the ingredients, the smell of it. And so you're just reaching yourself and deepen yourself in this immersive KFC experience. Get more codes to do more and share more, and it's global. They've definitely gone after the young Gen Z who operate games. They're definitely doing a really good job of sort of winning over that customer in terms of, liking their brand because they're now into so many different levels of it through the game, right? So you fall in love with the game. You fall in love with the different flavours. Is it just one flavour? Is it several? Are you getting a good value of redemption on it? So I think they've done a strong branding job.
Tom Ollerton 6:31
And Caitlin, do you think that they are going to win over anyone who isn't a regular KFC customer? What is there about this that is going to convert someone to chicken category and KFC specifically?
Caitlin Nguyen 6:45
Certainly, even if I don't love it, right? This experience is so amazing. I'll try it, right? And I was thinking that if this is successful, KFC could look at it from a very much sort of a product perspective. So obviously, you know, it's the main chicken, right? But what's to prevent them from, you know, promoting or, you know, featuring another product, right? A burger, etc., etc., right? So it's something that can continue to live and that's what I love. Right? So it is not only just this one, one-off time, right? It's something that can continue to sort of be as part of the whole series of this. I am not a KFC lover, right, however, you know, if I'm playing this game and it's so compelling and it's so easy, let's say, sort of the efforts of understanding what is that code, checking out on the website, all that, why not? Right? And then if it's so amazing, of course I will, you know, continue to consume it. So I think, I think the, the trialing of the product and then the sort of, the sort of, the sustainability of that, to drive this continuous usage. I think, I think it's powerful. I think it's fantastic.
Deborah Gbadamosi 7:52
If I was to try and determine the brief or at least the strategy around this it's... We want to reach Gen Z They're really hard to reach. They're not watching TV. They're massive gamers. And here's an opportunity for us to do something. They clearly have enough money to make something like this. Getting into a franchise like Zelda is not going to just be a case of I'm going to creative a bit of code and drop it in. It probably would have taken about a year for them to establish their relationship, build the code, test it out. It wouldn't have been a cheap job. It definitely would have been time consuming. As well as budget heavy. It feels like they really wanted to specifically get this new generation who they won't get in TV to get involved with the, with their brand in some way.
Tom Ollerton 8:39
Thumbs up or down. Would you sign off this campaign in its current form, yes or no? One, two, three... KFC, there you have it. Thanks so much, guys. We'll see you next week.
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