Kairos Media & KFC UK & Ireland - KFCGaming “KFConsole Official Launch”

The client challenge: entertain hungry customers & connect with people’s passion for gaming during lockdown.

In late 2018, we established the KFCGaming brand to target gaming-native millennials, with profiles across Twitter, Twitch, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. With a combined 469,200 followers and an engagement rate of 12.5% or more on all platforms (more than ten times the industry average), KFC have one of the largest presences in the gaming market today.

Fast forward to 2020 and KFC challenged Kairos, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic which meant all KFC restaurants had to shut up shop, to entertain hungry customers and connect with people’s passions for gaming during lockdown - allowing the KFC brand to be front and center when stores were ready to reopen.

The Kairos Media approach: create a key moment for gamers worldwide.

We knew this particular audience was going to be hard to reach via traditional media and communication methods, but we could pretty much guarantee they’d be spending significant amounts of their time consuming gaming content on social media during lockdown. Especially because the looming 2020 next-generation Xbox and Playstation console reveals were just around the corner - after 7 years of intense rivalry and speculation - a key moment for gamers worldwide.

With the conversation at an all time high as a result of the upcoming June 11th Sony “Reveal” Event, we saw an opportunity to hit KFC’s objectives in a way that had never been attempted before…

In order to authentically engage with this hyper-aware audience, an expensive sponsorship, esports team activation or league partnership wasn’t the right fit; we wanted to create real results, beyond logo placement, in order to truly entertain KFC consumers. As a consequence, we decided to create our own entry point into the console wars narrative, join an already organic conversation and to take Xbox and Sony head-on, “officially” launching our own KFConsole.

The ultimate solution: timing and authenticity is everything.

With the upcoming reveal of new hardware, we planned for the significant conversation that would take place among gamers globally. We didn’t want to enter the conversation, we wanted to lead it, so we took a strategic decision on timing, to reveal the KFConsole in a 24-hour window post the “first look” of Sony’s PlayStation 5.

The KFConsole also had to look and feel the part; gamers are highly critical of brands looking to capitalize on their community, authenticity was key. As a consequence, we created a high production value, CGI asset that would stand shoulder to shoulder with its competitor console releases.

The KFConsole itself featured many frequently requested features from gamers for the wider new generation of consoles, such as: 4k, 120fps gameplay and cross platform compatibility. This attention to detail would further cement KFC within the global conversation on the next generation of hardware and demonstrate their understanding of the space. The console also had to integrate the KFC brand and product, so naturally its shape mimicked that of a KFC bucket; with the inclusion of a Chicken Chamber, to heat your favourite KFC menu item.

The KFConsole was produced and edited in-house via our creative team. The creative and production was second to none; with many social media users and journalists alike questioning the authenticity of the console itself... could the KFConsole actually be a new and significant contender within the console wars?

The results: wait, did we actually beat Xbox and Playstation?

Our campaign was supported heavily via some of the UK’s top influencers, gaming community pages & press. The hardware reveal delivered in excess of:

14.6 million impressions

3.6 million engagements

5.6 million media views

368,000 google searches

80,000 social & digital mentions and

266 articles globally with a potential reach of 2,295,034,500 (OTS)

Highlight articles included coverage from mainstream and gaming press, this included publications such as Engadget, GQ, Hypebeast, The Metro, The Sun, Thrillist and IGN.

The KFConsole launch has not only achieved incredible results, but it has solidified KFC as a brand synonymous within the gaming/esports community. When we checked to see how our competitors were doing in the console race it turned out we did pretty well.

Stats taken from Twitter (accurate at the time of writing):

Playstation reveal - https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/1271193058210545665?s=20

4.7m views

9.8k comments

123k RT

302k likes

Xbox reveal - https://twitter.com/Xbox/status/1205309613131718656?s=20

4.3m views

4.4k comments

32.9k RT

79.8k likes

KFConsole reveal - https://twitter.com/kfcgaming/status/1271487675929890816?s=20

4.2m view

6.1k comments

64k RT

145k likes

We know what you’re thinking, when can you pre-order? Get in touch at contact@kairosmedia.com for all the details…