With 327 restaurants (versus more than 1500 for McDonalds), KFC suffers from a lack of visibility on the French market. Our objective was to find another way to stand out from competition, beyond the usual brand/product/promotional communication, taking a stand on a matter than was never addressed by another fast-food brand in France. We wanted to create a different conversation around KFC, engage more strongly with our core target (20-50 year old urban people) and make KFC visible to the general public, beyond just clients and prospects.

Our creative idea stands out by its simplicity and its utility: it is a bag.

In order to improve delivery drivers’ safety while working, we designed and developed a specialized isothermal backpack. The bag is equipped with three luminous stripes, which design is inspired by the shape of the iconic white and red bucket featuring the KFC logo. It is connected to delivery people’s bikes thanks to Bluetooth technology, making them able to flag their next turn or stop to the people and vehicles around them, in a very visible way, especially at night when they are most vulnerable.

The primary aim is to enhance their visibility and thereby reduce the occurrence of accidents. We handed the bags out for free to 350 delivery drivers, who were first to present themselves to a KFC restaurant inside Paris early 2024 to pick up an order.

Targets:

o Delivery drivers, whose safety is improved thanks to our DeliverySafe backpack, making their moves more visible. A target that suffers from a very precarious status (only 17% of them declare they have an official paid-employee status) and an overall lack of consideration, both by fast-food brands and delivery platforms.

o Local communities and road users: more visible delivery drivers also mean safer roads for everyone. Pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists benefit indirectly from this initiative.

o General public and consumers: KFC’s commitment to driver safety enhances its reputation and resonates positively with safety-conscious consumers.

Approach: the bag is the idea and the media. On purpose, the effort was focused on making it happen, first through the development of a prototype, and then the making of 350 bags. There was no additional media investment, just organic social media push and PR coverage.

We worked with a studio specialized in tech to prototype the first backpacks. The brief focused on comfort, lightness and simplicity of use). The remaining budget was used to produce another 350 bags.

The bags were proposed and handed out in January 2024 in Parisian KFC restaurants, to any delivery driver picking up an order.

We focused our operation on the city of Paris, because:

1/ it is the place where drivers’ safety conditions are worse, while meal deliveries in bicycle are most important

and 2/ it enabled us to deliver the bags to restaurants and distribute them efficiently, thanks to the number of KFC restaurants in this limited area.

The operation was supported by social media organic communication and PR coverage. A few drivers also made stories after receiving their bag to spread the word among their community.

PR coverage (articles in Konbini, Huffington Post, Society, Fubiz, Brut, Journal du Geek…)

Estimated improved riders’ visibility at night: +75%

9M impressions (organic and earned only).

Security feeling increased by 20% among drivers (qualitative interview after bags where handed out)

+3% brand love (bi-annual brand tracker).