Between November and December 2015, the KFC team created 100 15-second video ads featuring a talking burger puppet dispensing cheesy pickup lines. Each week, the team released 25 new micro-videos designed around prevalent viewing trends and searches on YouTube. The agile, fast-changing campaign continuously refined its content throughout the campaign by evaluating consumer response to the pre-rolls and removing videos with low view rates and optimizing those that did well.
GOALS
Rejuvenate the image of KFC
Raise awareness of KFC products outside of its best-selling chicken-on-the-bone range
Drive the sales of Hot & Cheezy burgers from the Hot & Cheezy range, which launched in Q4 of 2015
APPROACH
Developed a comprehensive YouTube video strategy to catch video and search trends in real time
Released 25 micro-targeted 15-second videos each week over a month
Optimized the campaign by gaging consumer response to pre-rolls, and investing more in content with the highest view rates
RESULTS
Increased awareness via 100 15-second micro-targeted YouTube videos
Achieved average view through rates of 35% (40% higher than the than industry benchmark of 25%)
Drove 16% week-over-week sales increase during the campaign period
"The real time data Google provided gave us insight into the rapidly changing interests of our target segment, while giving us the agility needed to make this campaign a success."
-Angelina Villanueva, Senior General Manager of Marketing, KFC
"In a crowded media space where people are constantly fed a multitude of content across mediums, highly differentiated messages that speak directly to the individual is needed to stand out. By tightly tying our ad content to the most popular YouTube videos, we zeroed in on our target audience’s interests. This allowed us to stand above the clutter and capture their attention."
