KFC - The Recipe Run
KFC Spain needed to significantly boost brand engagement and web traffic among a younger, digitally savvy audience. They aimed to connect KFC with a relevant cultural phenomenon to generate widespread social media impressions and drive online orders, particularly among gamers excited about new releases.
Creative Idea
KFC turned its secret recipe into an in-game speedrun challenge within a popular video game.
KFC capitalized on an in-game Colonel Sanders lookalike and new fried chicken cooking feature in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. By challenging gamers to speedrun cooking KFC's recipe in-game, it tapped into gaming culture and demonstrated the brand's fun, iconic recipe, generating massive organic engagement.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
KFC possessed an iconic, globally recognized fried chicken recipe and a distinct brand persona with Colonel Sanders.
Category
Fast-food brands typically rely on traditional advertising or direct product promotions, rarely integrating deeply into specific gaming cultures.
Customer
Gamers were excited about the new Zelda game and delighted by unexpected in-game coincidences, eager to share discoveries and challenges.
Culture
The launch of a highly anticipated game, combined with the rise of speedrunning and user-generated content, created a perfect engagement opportunity.
Company
KFC possessed an iconic, globally recognized fried chicken recipe and a distinct brand persona with Colonel Sanders.
Category
Fast-food brands typically rely on traditional advertising or direct product promotions, rarely integrating deeply into specific gaming cultures.
Strategy:
Leverage emergent cultural phenomena within popular entertainment to create interactive brand experiences.
Customer
Gamers were excited about the new Zelda game and delighted by unexpected in-game coincidences, eager to share discoveries and challenges.
Culture
The launch of a highly anticipated game, combined with the rise of speedrunning and user-generated content, created a perfect engagement opportunity.
Strategy:
Leverage emergent cultural phenomena within popular entertainment to create interactive brand experiences.
Results
The contest became popular among gamers from 17 different countries. It even broke into the most prestigious speedrunning event in the world as a new format.
17
countries participated
most prestigious
speedrunning event integration
Strategy Technique
Borrow Equity
KFC leveraged the massive cultural relevance of the newly released Zelda game, its in-game Colonel lookalike, and new cooking mechanics. This allowed the brand to organically integrate into gaming culture and generate widespread engagement.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Gamification
KFC turned its iconic recipe into an interactive in-game speedrun challenge within Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. This leveraged existing game mechanics and the speedrunning community, making the brand's recipe "fun to be played."
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign's craft is exceptional in its ingenious integration of a real-world brand into the mechanics and lore of a highly anticipated video game, creating an organic and engaging experience for gamers.
The campaign seamlessly integrated KFC's brand into the gameplay mechanics and visual world of a major video game, creating an authentic and interactive experience.
It transformed a digital discovery into a tangible, rewarding experience by delivering real fried chicken to players who completed the in-game challenge.
The campaign successfully leveraged and amplified an existing organic discovery within the gaming community, turning it into a widespread, participatory event.
The visual resemblance of the Goron character to Colonel Sanders and the in-game fried chicken item were cleverly aligned with the brand, enhancing the campaign's authenticity within the game's aesthetic.
The magic of this campaign comes from the perfect synergy between digital craft, which enabled the brand's integration into the game, and community engagement, which amplified the organic discovery into a global phenomenon.
