Michelin Impossible
KFC
Issue 53 | December 2019
Agency
Ogilvy Australia
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director: Gavin McLeod Group Creative Director: Shaun Branagan Senior Copywriter: Blake Arthur Senior Art Director: Carl Robertson Copywriter: Wilson Kwong Senior Creative, Ogilvy PR: Stephen Maher
Production Team
Senior Agency Producer: Amanda Bennie Director, Infinity Squared: Daniel Reisinger Producer, Infinity Squared: Chris Seeto
Other Credits
Executive Business Director: Leigh Bignell Group Account Director: Cassie Poiner Senior Account Director: Jessica Farahar Senior Account Manager: Ellen Corr Head of Strategy: Ryan O'Connell Social Strategist: Ola Olorunnimbe Strategic Planner: Mat Maroni Senior Account Director, Ogilvy PR: James Curtis Senior Account Managers, Ogilvy PR: Taylor York, Madeleine Hanley Client Chief Marketing Officer: Kristi Woolrych Marketing Director: Sally Spriggs Brand Manager: Kate Horton Social Impact & Media Relations: Sarah Collier
Date
June – July 2019
Background
Most Australians believe that KFC makes delicious but not necessarily high-quality chicken.
This was not true. The quality of KFC food is very high. As Sam Edelman, owner of a KFC franchise in remote Alice Springs, said: “We use fresh chickens that are delivered to the store every day and handbreaded in our kitchen by our cooks. There is some skill involved.”
Idea
The challenge was to remind Australians that KFC stood for Kentucky Fried Chicken and improve perceptions of KFC’s credentials and quality.
Sam Edelman, owner of arguably the most remote KFC in the world, was a man of great passion for his business. Watching Netflix, he saw that a Bangkok street vendor had been awarded a Michelin star for his food.
The question he asked himself was, doesn’t my KFC deserve a Michelin star too? It was a question he put not only to Australia but to Michelin as well.
One of Michelin’s criteria for a Star was that a restaurant had to be “worth a special journey.” Since some of Sam’s customers had to travel hundreds of kilometres for a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, that was a tick.
One gold mine ordered $1,000 of fried chicken and had it flown to them in Western Australia.
Sam began his campaign in Alice Springs asking locals and tourists if their meal at his KFC deserved a star. He started a Facebook campaign and created bumper stickers in his quest.
As support grew, KFC Australia flew Sam to France, where he met the International Director of the Michelin Guide to put his case. Back in his homeland, betting companies were offering odds on whether Sam would be successful or not.
11 to 1 suggested not. But by then perceptions of Kentucky Fried Chicken as great quality food, well-cooked had soared.
Results
The team set out to reach 25 million Australians but ended up reaching 850 million people around the world. In Australia, $97,443 of paid media achieved a total of $2,327,967 of earned media coverage with 60% of coverage included visual branding of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Our Thoughts
As more and more people install ad-blockers and fast-forward through the commercial breaks, so PR grows. To make an impression, brands need to make the news.
But the story needs to be genuinely interesting. It needs an idea. Maybe that’s why PR agencies are hiring advertising creatives? It’s one thing to come up with a storyline but to come up with one that is branded, relevant and memorable, that takes some talent. And this campaign is a classic of its kind. Brilliant casting in Sam, who is a genuine evangelist of his product, a plausible plotline – in that his KFC does sort-of fulfil one of the criteria by which Michelin hand out their stars. The humour all comes from that ‘sort-of’.
The lovely thing about stories like this is that they unfold over weeks so the brand begins to become a part of popular culture.
No mean feat.