KFC

Helping a fast-food giant change perceptions

Ogilvy PR was tasked with showing Australians that KFC is, contrary to stigma, high quality food. As a leader in the quick service restaurant category, KFC constantly needs to fight against the perception that fast food means low quality food. The reality is chicken is delivered daily and hand-breaded in restaurant.

We needed to win over the most cynical anti-KFC audience (aka food critics) and convert them into public advocates.  

To do this we partnered with Nelly Robinson, fine-dining restauranteur, to create an 11-course degustation menu and served it at a pop-up fine dining restaurant. By bringing a down to earth KFC-approach to a high-class dining experience, we extended our appeal from loyal fans to frequent fine diners.  

As well as a natural boost in Australian’s perceptions of the brand, the campaign gained 1,372 pieces of national and international earned coverage with 1.24 billion reach and 99.2% positive sentiment​. “KFC Degustation” became the fourth trending search on Google when reservations went public and climbed to third when the restaurant opened its doors.  ​ 

We secured 20,700 reservations on the waitlist and reached three million people via 21 influencers who attended the preview event. KFC’s YouGov Quality Index score increased to 13 in 2022, from 8 during the same period in 2021.