Over the past few years, KFC has aimed to enhance a young and energetic brand image in the Chinese market to drive business success. We realized that young Chinese consumers have great national pride due to the rapid development of China. Therefore the Olympics Games in Rio were a great opportunity for KFC to stand alongside the young people to cheer for Team China, even though it was not an official sponsor.

The objectives of this campaign were not only to generate a buzz on social media during the Olympics to promote its seasonal products, but also to create great brand experiences that can bond with young consumers emotionally.

The key challenge is to find a way for KFC, a Western brand, to be a part of this national pride moment to bond with young consumers during this emotional and passionate time, and eventually lead to an increase in sales.

We invited Ms. Tan Wei-wei performed the song “Red Encouragement”, a rock music reinterpretation of a song from a 300 year old Hua-yin opera. The collision of Western Rock and Chinese Opera made the song truly powerful. The music video, which also served as the TV commercial, was released on all the major online music and video platforms as well as during an offline concert.

In addition to the MV, Ms. Tan released a short video on the most popular UGC video platform “Miao-pai” to rally consumers to participate in the “Red Encouragement Drum Beat Relay”. We then released a HTML5 game on social media platforms for consumers to hit the drum in time to the music and accumulate beats.