Set against the backdrop of Covid-19 and the ongoing console wars, KFConsole punctuated the media landscape with its timeliness, production quality and sheer originality.

Utilising the media channels most frequently used by gamers - Twitter, Instagram and YouTube - KFC shook up the fast food landscape and quite literally thought outside of the box.

From the reveal of the KFConsole in June, to the launch in December, KFC managed to do what most deemed impossible: it entered and won the console wars.

In Spring 2020, KFC was heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the UK, its restaurants were temporarily closed - then on reopening, KFC fans faced a limited menu.

We were briefed by KFC to engage and entertain gamers. Given the Covid-19 challenges, any activity needed to be inherently digital, sharable and authentic.

The KFC Gaming channels, set up by Kairos in 2018, provided a springboard

The objectives were threefold: earn mass reach, foster positive engagement and drive closer KFC affinity to gaming.

Market research illustrated that KFC’s UK core audience had aged out and they’d lost touch with younger 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, with the next-gen console launches providing a platform to engage them on.

The creative concept was the KFConsole. A new, next-gen gaming console from the fried chicken brand, which didn’t just allow for gameplay, but also for chicken to be cooked within it.

Mirroring tactics we knew would be deployed by Xbox and Playstation (to support their own next-gen consoles), the timing of the KFConsole launch was as important as the hardware itself.

Starting with a reveal (a slick, CGI asset) in June, gamers were teased with details throughout autumn ahead of the grand reveal in December, which coincided with Sony and Microsoft’s own launches.

Kairos knew that the upcoming reveal of new next-gen consoles would trigger significant conversation among gamers globally.

But we didn’t want to enter this conversation, we wanted to lead it. So, we took a strategic decision to reveal the KFConsole in a 24-hour window post the “first look” of Sony’s PlayStation 5.

Similarly, we knew the timelines for Sony and Microsoft’s launches beyond the summer reveal events, and mirrored them with the KFConsole to ensure it remained a core part of the console wars narrative in the run down to the fall 2020 launches.

Gamers are notoriously active and opinionated online. We knew that we could leverage these tendencies with appropriately toned and timed content to take the KFConsole far beyond our owned KFC Gaming pages.

To capture the attention of gamers en masse, the KFConsole was tactically revealed just hours after the Playstation 5 launch event in June. The reveal took the form of a slick, CGI film, which was launched on KFC Gaming’s Twitter, Instagram and YouTube channels.

Between the reveal in June and launch in December, KFC Gaming capitalised on the debate amongst gamers around whether the KFConsole was real or not with a series of cryptic social posts. True to next-gen console form, Kairos even factored in ‘delays’ to the launch schedule to tantalise gamers even more.

For the launch in December, once again KFC tailgated behind Microsoft and Sony with its announcement film.

Whilst the initial brief was to focus on a UK audience, the expectations on the campaign quickly expanded beyond this to engage gamers globally.

On KFC’s owned social channels, the KFConsole delivered:

35.1 million+ organic impressions

4 million+ engagements

84,000 new followers

Overall 26.9% engagement rate

Across other social & digital platforms it achieved:

238m potential impressions across Twitter

18k Reddit mentions

8.5 million Google searches for ‘KFConsole or KFC Console’ globally

In terms of earned media it achieved:

Over 2,500 media articles globally including coverage in publications such as BBC News, FOX News, USA Today, Daily Mail, IGN, Daily Express, TechRadar, Metro and The Independent. Coverage equated to a media value of £14.8m with a total reach of 3.1 bn.

Overall, The KFConsole nailed its objective of delivering mass awareness and positive sentiment amongst a usually fickle gaming audience, plus it established KFC not just as a brand for gamers, but as a gaming brand in its own right.