Since its inception in 2004, KFC 3on3 has been the most well-known teenage basketball tournament in China with over 1.3 million teenagers participated in. It has brought outstanding brand awareness to the KFC brand for years among teenagers.

However, in 2014, we were faced with an unprecedented challenge. In the year of the World Cup, when the young Chinese consumers put all their attention to soccer, anything irrelevant to soccer may be easily neglected. Not to mention that this year’s KFC 3on3 grand opening was happening only days before the World Cup final.

We’ve developed a creative idea and execution that are unprecedented - such brave thing has never been done by other competitors or marketers in China before, even something similar.

However, it doesn't mean the idea is totally off brand. It links tightly to KFC and KFC 3on3 basketball, because the idea was transforming 3on3 basketball which is the brand assets of KFC in China, to something even braver and crazier, which really carries out the essence of 3on3 basketball – free spirit and braveness, and totally reflects what Chinese youth is looking for.

On the event day (July 6th), around 2000 people came to the site to watch the 11on11 basketball game, which is more than double of the number expected (800 people).

The event attracted live coverage and reports from 31 media outlets (including CCTV 5), and reached over 253 million people, earning an equivalent media value worth RMB 16.6 million.

At the same time, it caused quite a stir in social media. The hashtag #Play basketball on a soccer field# was read by over 5 million people on Weibo, and resulted in 30,000 discussions – an amount that was more than six times achieved by hashtags released by a competing brand which was an official partner of the World Cup.

In addition, this event created the record of “the biggest basketball court in China” awarded by China Records.