In a market that captured the attention of over 400 million viewers in 2018 and where global revenue is expected to more than double by 2021, it’s those who invest with credibility now that win in the world of esports. No other brand has captured the attention of the gaming and esports world quite like KFC, and utilised emerging platforms to such good effect.

Entertaining fans, building ‘true’ brand affinity whilst working towards a hard business outcome over a sustained project span, KFC Gaming has demonstrated a best-in-class brand breakthrough in this already saturated space.

Presenting “Finger Clickin’ Good”. A creative platform that champions the everyday gamer. Those whose voices are not heard or listened to by the major brands and publishers in the gaming and esports landscape.

For too long, grassroots gamers have been ridiculed as the geeks or the nerds of society. We positioned KFC as the brand who challenges this stigma; celebrating the eccentricity, drive and talent that this community embodies.

To authentically engage with this hyper-aware audience, an expensive sponsorship, esports team activation or league partnership was not the right direction. Instead, our approach gave the community the opportunity to take their passion to the world stage. Manifested through an interactive social strategy, targeted influencer engagement and a truly unique online tournament.

Without losing KFC’s core brand values and fun, playful tone, we created a bespoke programme that has captured the hearts and minds of the gaming and esports community.

Market research illustrated that KFC’s UK core audience had aged out and they’d lost touch with young consumers. Insight also showed 13m takeaway-lovers play video games - but with 50% of them shunning KFC for competitors, there was a 6.5m-strong opportunity to win back market share.

Combine this with a highly-publicised supply issue causing all UK KFC restaurants to run out of chicken and close in February 2018, the challenge was palpable.

Primary KPIs were rooted in engagement, but there was a looming requirement that new activity needed to drive affinity, and quickly.

How could the brand build long-term preference with notoriously cynical communities in a sector which has proven a graveyard for failed ‘corporate’ activations?

The strategy was to authentically integrate KFC into the community, positioning them as a natural part of the conversation, whilst subtly promoting the business pillar that most resonates with the gamer lifestyle; KFC delivery.

Gamers are digital-natives, hence a social and influencer-led creative was the clear gateway to the conversation. To launch our activation, in late 2018, we established the @KFCGaming social presence with profiles across Twitter, Twitch, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Following an incredibly successful launch, we executed a six-month influencer programme, alongside multiple esports-activations and Twitch takeovers. Encompassing a rebrand of the iconic “Colonel”, in-game challenges against the infamous founder, alongside custom KFC Gaming care packages, we reached and shaped the opinion of the mass gaming audience.

The campaign climaxed in February 2019 with a world-first partnership between KFC and Activision’s Call of Duty to facilitate “KFC Royale”; the first ever influencer led, community-driven esports tournament of its kind, reaching over 12m people in the UK and 50 million globally.

The amalgamation of these core activities formed a campaign execution never attempted by any other non-endemic gaming brand globally.

Independent research from Join The Dots found that directly as a result of “Finger Clickin’ Good”, 73% of people improved their opinion of KFC, perception of KFC as a modern-brand climbed 9%, while food delivery awareness increased 26.5%. On the tournament specifically, over 95% of the audience felt that it was perfectly suited to KFC.

Delivering in excess of 108M organic impressions, 3.1M organic engagements and 37M minutes watched during the tournament alone, the KFC Gaming initiative has firmly established KFC as a brand synonymous within the gaming/esports community.

From an ROI perspective, the earned media value of £1.75M, CPM of £6.51 and CPE figure of £0.23 all hugely over-indexed vs comparable industry benchmarks.

No other QSR brand has been able to achieve such scale or impact from gaming and esports, whilst building such genuine affinity to the gaming audience.