GPS Cassette
KFC
Issue 45 | December 2017
Agency
Wieden+Kennedy Portland
Creative Team
Executive Creative Directors Eric Baldwin, Jason Bagley Creative Directors Freddie Powell, Jarrod Higgins, Jason Kreher Copywriter Michael Brandes Art Director Lloyd Winter Designer Dave Hagen
Production Team
Producer Ben Grylewicz, Heather Smith Harvey Audio Production Company JOINT Production Company W+K Productions Editor Zoe Hoeltzel Print Illustration David Brinley
Other Credits
Social Strategy John Dempsey, Andrew Clayton Media/Comms Planning Anjali Patel Account Team Jesse Johnson, Rob Archibald, Kate Rutkowski, Madeline Parker Business Affairs Brian Cook Project Management Amy Streger
Date
September 2017
Background
The agency was always looking for quirky ways for the KFC brand to appear in pop culture. The GPS cassette felt like the perfect way to merge the Colonel's passion for innovation with his dedication to doing things the hard way.
Idea
The GPS Cassette Tape was an exciting and groundbreaking breakthrough. It combined the GPS format with the cassette tape; these two technologies into one creating something far more durable and reliable, and almost as user-friendly and accurate. It was resistant to cracked screens and water and did not require an internet connection. Just stay clear of magnets, of course.
Results
Press coverage included from Adweek: KFC put GPS directions on a cassette tape in tech innovation that's useless but funny
Nation's Restaurant News wrote: "Like Col. Sanders, KFC's GPS cassette does things the hard way".
The YouTube video of the full tape got 73,000 views in four weeks.
Our Thoughts
Thankyou W+K for sending us this campaign but oh my, we had to do some research to work it out, which we think we've done, finally.
When the agency was appointed by struggling KFC, they went back into the archives and found some of the old campaigns the Colonel had run himself. There was a radio commercial with the Colonel suggesting, "It's celestial boating season so why not enjoy some Kentucky Fried Chicken?"
The insight was that part of the brand's culture had been to create weird little moments in culture. W+K set out to do the same. For instance, gloriously, KFC only follow 11 people on Twitter. The Spice Girls and six guys called Herb (including Herb Alpert).
Geddit?
There's also been the launch of a finger-lickin' good nail-polish.
This tape (which you can play on YouTube) is a classic American road trip through KFC history, from the town of Corbin, where the Colonel invented his original recipe, to his Big Chicken restaurant in Marietta, Georgia.
As well as a little pop at things like Domino's Tracker and digital mania, it's a subtle little story of simpler times, another little underscore of KFC's traditional values. It looks stupid but it's anything but. It's PR gold. As part of an overall strategy designed to surprise people and get them talking to each other with raised eyebrows, it has already led to a sales turnaround in the USA.