KFC’s sales had been flagging since 2012, and were below market average. Even the development of its delivery service had failed to boost growth.

In an attempt to reboot the brand in 2017, KFC took a fresh approach by putting Colonel Sanders at the heart of its campaigns. But despite a significant increase in media budget, post-testing showed that Colonel had little impact on driving footfall to restaurants.

In some way, Colonel Sanders had stolen the limelight: a deep dive into KFC’s market research showed that the main problem facing the brand was its poor product image.

While McDonald’s and Burger King had set about refocusing advertising on their menu items several years ago to meet growing demand for better quality products, KFC was hampered by the negative image of its products. It needed to redefine its promise to shift from being a polarizing brand to one that creates desire.

Crispy porn!

We made crispiness the central feature of all KFC advertising using words, sounds, music and stunning close-up of the products.

- Posters were used as the main medium to make consumers salivate in the vicinity of restaurants.

- We put Colonel Sanders back at the heart of the campaign to deliver on the “crispy” promise.

- We developed a new pitch focusing on the quality of its chicken and spotlighting its partnership with 500 French poultry farmers.

- Above all, we made the bold choice to allocate 90% of the media budget to promote permanent items on the menu rather than temporary items.