It’s common knowledge that 87% of TV viewers browse their mobile during TV ads while subliminally continuing to observe the bigger screen. What if we used technology to bridge mobile and TV to create a simultaneous experience? What if we could use on-the-fly creativity to deliver on mobile a brand message whose story connected to what’s playing on TV at-precisely-the-same-time?

So we decided to use the second screen synch technology to hijack ads of all brands that advertise heavily on TV during CNY period.

We identified 20 TV commercials that were predicted to both garner social currency and have big media investments. For each one of these ads, we built an algorithm that singled out its most memorable part and used that as inspiration to create a snappy KFC parody. We now had twenty KFC videos mimicking the 20 popular ads during CNY.

Seconds after a commercial for another brand appears on a TV channel, KFC spots mimicking that commercial reached out to people who are looking at their mobile or tablet devices while watching TV. This opus was a result of the ‘provocateur’ spirit that we nurtured through the entire data journey.

Key implementation benchmarks

1. Foretelling the popularity of TV commercials using econometrics

2. Machines inspired TV commercials that are statistically certain to be popular

3. Hijacking TV ads , real time with parody ads on social

4. Daily reports pushed to war room so we turn around new content in 3 days

Data sources/tools

1. Nielsen for TV data

2. Netbase for social listening feeds.

3. Proprietary econometric model to predict the most popular TVCs

4. Proprietary visual recognition algorithm for singling out the most memorable chunk of the commercial

5. 4C Insights to deploy TV sync capability to Facebook, Google and Instagram.

The TV-sync campaign kicked-off a week before the start of the festival and ended 7 days later. A sharp 14 day burst to garner maximum attention and sales.

1.The product sold off within 6 weeks. Two weeks faster than targeted date.

2. KFC’s sales were 60% higher as compared to the same CNY period last year

3. For the first time in decades the ad recall and TOM scores for a KFC CNY product was higher than the McD prosperity burger.

4. 45% of all video views crossed the 10 second mark and the VTR beat industry average by 50%.

Feathers to our hat, in terms of the behavioural changes that the campaign facilitated include:-

• Fundamental change in the process of creative development : inspired by machine and designed by man

• Blurring of the divide between the way media and creative agencies collaborate

• Educating the industry that to reach out to the ‘attention compromised’ consumer, frequency has to be topped with ad variety

• Validation of campaign resonance even before launch

Every media professional knows that more than 80% of TV viewers browse their mobiles when ads play on the bigger screen. Yet, no one has managed to use this reality to build a seamless, compelling and successful advertising execution. We believe we managed to do this with the KFC Golden Egg Crunch campaign.

Given the inclusive nature of our product our TG was broad- families. In the 14 day festive period, we had 2 key challenges to address:-

1. Identify which ads to hijack – ads that would target families and with heavy airtime

What we did? We plugged an API into TV log data and econometrically modelled 10 years of CNY commercials to understand patterns on budgeting, scheduling, reach build-up as well as social success and search behaviours triggered. Using these learnings, we identified 20 TV commercials that we predicted would become popular and would also be heavily advertised.

2. What content to use in our ads when hijacking the identified ads

What we did ?For each of the 20 ads, we built an algorithm that singled out the most memorable part of its current commercial and used that as inspiration to create a snappy KFC parody. We now had twenty KFC ads mimicking the 20 popular ads during CNY.

Combining data from social, viewership & ad scheduling we used the TV Sync technology to deploy the 20 parodies on Facebook, Instagram & Google platforms within 3 seconds of the live commercial trigger on TV, during prime time (11am-2pm & 7pm-11pm).

Situation

This Chinese New Year (CNY), KFC launched its Golden Egg Crunch to compete against the long standing, much-loved, festive hero; McDonalds Prosperity Burger.

The brief

In Malaysia, if a brand needs huge reach, TV is the only medium. Plus during festive periods all other ‘mass’ brands also spend heavily on TV. KFC didn’t have the money to dominate the medium, yet we needed to stand out.

In terms of time frame, how we performed in a 14 day period (7 days before and 7 days after the D day) would define how the product would perform.

Objective

In the QSR category, awareness is the key driver to sales. So, we had two objectives.

1. Capture attention and win on top-of-mind against McDonald’s Prosperity Burger during CNY.

2. Sell out within 8 weeks; this was a limited time offer and any left-over stock is a straight loss.