In the world of QSR , the more you are seen, the more you are craved. In Romania McDonalds has higher visibility, with double the media investment. The media budget isn’t the only power that our competitor has: they also own the perception of value for money offers. As KFC didn’t want to play the lowest price game, we needed to find innovative ways to communicate our special offers.

OUR CHALLENGE: how to create an experience around our daily discounts?

KFC found an ingenious way of stealing the show and did so in one of the highest trafficked locations: the Bucharest subway. It carries millions of people daily, making it one of the best spots to advertise. Travelers spend hours involuntarily staring at the Bucharest subway map. Little did they know, they were also staring at a piece of chicken. That was, until KFC opened their eyes to the revelation.

The Bucharest subway map has one of its lines shaped like a chicken drumstick. KFC saw it. And it made everybody see it, turning it into a medium they can own forever.

Every subway map became a KFC crave trigger and also a menu. People could scan the map and get discounts or do the whole tour in exchange for a Bucket. The full tour took around 40 minutes, but this didn’t discourage people, who raced for the bucket every day, one of them even making 3 consecutive tours.

This way, we didn’t just generate crave, but we made KFC part of people’s daily routine, making it fun and easy to order while traveling to school, work or home.

In Romania, McDonalds has double the media investment versus KFC. We needed a way to reach people beyond traditional media. Something that would cut through the clutter and start a conversation. And that something was staring us in the face: a drumstick shaped line right in the middle of the Bucharest subway map - one of the highest trafficked locations in Romania. More importantly, a place with a captive audience that has nothing else to do then stare at their phones… or at the subway map.

Conveniently, many KFC restaurants are located near subway exits, making our presence inside the subway even more relevant. Out of all regular commuters in the city, 24.1% buy something from KFC weekly, while 36.3% of them do it monthly. So, here we have an environment where many KFC fans transit daily.

Owning the drumstick

KFC partnered with the Bucharest subway company and created special maps that highlighted the drumstick shaped line, with a simple question: Can you KFC it?

Billboards featuring the modified map accompanied commuters throughout the subway and in nearby KFC restaurants.

We also hijacked Google searches for the map, pointing out the drumstick line in the results.

Activating the drumstick

Commuters could scan the drumstick on any subway map for KFC discounts or embark on a full drumstick tour to win a Bucket.

How? People could visit the landing page and scan the map using a web app designed to recognize the drumstick shape. This instantly unlocked a 20% discount or a burger. Those who started the full tour had their locations verified to ensure they were on the correct route. Upon completing the circuit, they could claim their Bucket at the many KFCs right outside the subway.

AWARENESS

We achieved the “I can’t unsee it” effect. Thousands of subway maps where KFCed forever, maps that are seen by millions of commuters every month.

With a media investemnt of just 50K euro, KFC now owns media space actually worth 2.2 million euro per year. Every year.

RESPONSE RATE

- 1 map scan every 6 seconds

- 1 drumstick tour every 2 minutes

- 84% redemntion rate for the prizes

- 5% sales increase in Bucharest

- 5% increase in innovative brand perception

And some cheaters who tried to do the tour on multiple phones at once