KFC is the largest, most successful restaurant brand in China. But by 2022 store traffic was suffering and performance had declined by 16%. The business relies heavily on casual footfall. Young consumers represent a key audience who must be constantly recruited.

Innovation had helped the brand win with young Chinese consumers. But technologies (and generations) never stand still.

Gen Z have evolved: hanging out with friends is increasingly a virtual experience. 50% agree “I spend more time hanging out with friends in gaming environments than in the real world”.

How could KFC thrive when a key consumption occasion was disappearing?

Our objectives were clear:

• Re-ignite cultural relevance among Gen Z.

• Create new consumption occasions for a virtual world.

• Drive sales with an audience who were bypassing our stores.

Lots of brands have a presence in the metaverse. To deliver, we realized we needed not simply a presence, but a commerce platform.

But that platform could not exist in the metaverse alone. Nike and Gucci make millions of dollars from virtual fashion. It’s harder to share your virtual fries.

We couldn’t simply signal cultural relevance; we needed to drive consumption. The store might be virtual, the meals had to be real.

We created a virtual store experience hosted on China’s most popular platform for young people, QQ, drawing on everything people loved about the original in store experience. The KFC Re:Store.

In a world first for the platform, users can order in the metaverse and have their order delivered in the real world.

For Gen Z, there is no disconnect between the real and virtual. Virtual status, friends and hangouts are as valuable as real ones. Brands that thrive in the metaverse blur the boundaries, connecting their audiences’ needs with the codes and culture of Web 3.0.

Working with a Gen Z creative team, we learned how to show up authentically in their world:

Bring the Swag: Virtual bragging rights matter as much as real world style and swagger. We needed to craft virtual assets that would deliver credibility and desirability.

Make it Social: Just like a real KFC store we needed to design an experience where users would want to hang out, spend time and connect with friends.

Keep it Seamless: It was essential the virtual store delivered real world sales-but the last things gamers want are interruptions. We needed to connect the two as effortlessly as possible.

Using Unreal Engine 4, the Re:Store combines traditional Chinese design and cutting edge technology, launched on 27th July 2022 within QQ, China’s most popular platform for younger users.

We Made it Social: Users could dance, play, and hang out with friends and a virtual Colonel Saunders (the first non-player character on the platform).

The Swag was on Point: We designed virtual merchandise, furniture, pets and even our own currency, KFC Chicken Coins - another first for the platform - which users could earn to pay for their virtual goodies.

We designed a Seamless relationship between the virtual store and real world sales.

In a world first for the platform, users can order in the metaverse and have their order delivered in the real world.

This revolutionary borderless commerce approach established a new commercial model for brands in the QQ platform.

Within five weeks, we had achieved 19M visitors, 4.3BN interactions, and 300M chats with Colonel Sanders, plus over 6M virtual selfies.

6, 690,000 pieces of virtual clothing were sold in just 5 weeks, as well as 11M items of virtual furniture and 180M virtual meals. In three days, 30M Chicken Coins were distributed.

Re:Store as a fully shoppable experience, will give KFC a unique retail footprint in one of the world’s largest economies, serving one of the world’s largest populations. A store with a footprint, and an energized customer base unimaginable in the real world. KFC once again transforming the customer experience and establishing a new commercial model.

But the Re:Store is already driving offline sales. Every August KFC launch the "CP Burger," a key promotional moment. By promoting it in the Re:Store we drove sales 5 x faster than previous years, selling 4M burgers in just one week.