To meet our ambition, we knew we couldn’t simply launch the Zinger in America—it needed to be bigger than that. And TV spots alone wouldn’t be enough to break through.

Colonel Sanders, the founder of KFC, was the ultimate chicken salesman. For him, having a “world famous” sandwich wouldn’t be good enough. He’d want to take it to the next level.

So our idea was to launch the Zinger literally into space, in partnership with World View, an aerospace exploration company.

We announced our space mission in PR and on TV, with Rob Lowe playing the role of Colonel Sanders. To create a big launch moment and establish the campaign, we ran our longform commercial in high-impact media, like the NBA Playoffs.

In the weeks leading up to the event, we used social and online video to promote the livestream and to remind people to tune in.

Meanwhile, our microsite tracked mission progress, and we partnered with the Verge to deliver a behind-the-scenes look at the real science that went into our space mission, including atmospheric testing on the fried chicken sandwich.

Finally, on June 29, we launched the Zinger into space, broadcasting the launch live on Facebook and Twitter. For those that missed it, we created a recap video and promoted it across our social channels.

The Zinger 01 mission was a success. During the launch week alone, the microsite had nearly 400,000 visitors.

Delivering on our ambition, the space launch was covered everywhere from Space.com to the Atlantic. Even the New York Times wrote about it in their science section. Not too bad for a fast food brand.

Best of all, the work generated over 4.5 billion earned impressions, and helped deliver 3.5% same-store sales growth for KFC.