Due to various factors, the egg supply has been unstable in recent years, resulting in an egg shortage in many countries, including Taiwan. Kentucky Fried Chicken Taiwan (KFC Taiwan) anticipated the potential impact on its hot-selling egg tarts and took proactive action ahead to develop a new product, the "Cranberry tarts," which doesn’t require eggs, thereby turning the challenge into a business opportunity.

KFC Taiwan faces a dilemma as its side dish, “egg tart” outshines its core business - fried chicken- and became the hero product in consumers’ minds. People joked that the brand was an “egg tart” specialty store that also happened to sell fried chicken. The "Cranberry Tart" and the egg tart may look alike, but they are completely different from the ingredients to its taste.

How to differentiate this new tart from the original “egg tart” and generate attention and desire for it became the key objective.

By observing the target audience's behavior on social media, the PR agency took the head-on fight with existing social topic, which users could easily associate with then turn those users become advocates to speak for the brand: Based on the deep understanding of consumer insights, the agency leveraged the attention to KFC Taiwan's hero product, the egg tart, then put a clever twist on it. The agency sent a note with a carefully crafted message to the media, with a clue to direct attention to KFC Taiwan's Facebook page for more information – “KFC Taiwan officially announced that we will draw a clear line with egg tart. Moreover, we don’t sell egg tart this time.” Simultaneously, the same message was posted on KFC Taiwan's FB. The campaign quickly went viral, generating a significant amount of social media buzz and user-generated content and ultimately drawing the media’s attention.

To address the brand-association challenge and reach target audience, the PR agency leveraged the TA's heavy internet consumption and engagement on social media, created a note implying that “KFC Taiwan would not be selling egg tarts this time” and deliberately directed attention to its Facebook page for more information. This served as a teaser to generate buzz among young adults and families.

Two-phase communication strategy was designed to successfully turned talkability into positive reception for the new product launch:

1. Teaser phase: the agency created and distributed the talkability assets to amplify the message and generate more buzz. The content was designed to appeal to the TA's interest in unique desserts and early adoption of food trends.

2. Launch phase: the agency capitalized on the buzz and turned it into new product favorability by an official press conference to release more information about the new product, Cranberry Tarts.

1.The PR agency executed a two-phase strategy to promote KFC Taiwan's new product launch. During the teaser phase, a note with a strategic message was sent to the media and posted on KFC Taiwan's Facebook page. This generated significant discussion among young adults and families on social media, which was further amplified through influencers and celebrities’ engagement.

2.In the launch phase, the agency leveraged the buzz and directed it towards the new product launch. On the day of the launch, media attendance was four times higher than anticipated, demonstrating the success of the PR campaign. The execution was carefully timed, with the teaser phase generating interest and the launch phase capitalizing on it. The scale of the execution was significant, as the campaign generated widespread discussion and interest online, which led to a successful product launch.

1.The PR campaign achieved remarkable results, generating nearly 550 news coverages, including 115+ TV news clipping, 301+ internet news clipping and 115+ FB Fanpage reposts, reaching over 32.7 million USD PR Value and over 200 million media impressions.

2.The brand favorability reached 75 times high, surpassed its competitors, becoming the leading brand in the sector.

3.The social volume peaked reach over 48,000 mentions within a day when the teaser released.

4.KFC’s positive-to-negative ratio (P/N ratio) is surging from 0.06 to 2.04 with 209% growth, ranking top 1 among all the fast-food brands for 2 consecutive weeks.

5.The campaign achieved a total ROI surpassed 1,523 times than the past. These outcomes show that the campaign effectively raised brand awareness, brand favorability, and boosted sales.