Malaysian Media Awards Winners Showcase

Objective & Challenge
It is no surprise that Covid-19 accelerated the usage of digital, exponentially increasing food delivery services especially during the multiple lockdowns in the country. Within this food delivery battleground, consumers were besieged with a plethora of choices – from a variety of cuisines and food delivery platforms. A large population of these food delivery users are young adults. Whilst the young adults’ segment has gotten used to ordering food online, KFC was not in their key consideration set. We needed to be relevant to them, grow our penetration amongst them and increase their frequency usage of ordering from the KFC app. When we look at our data (YouGov, GWI) – along with food delivery, gaming stood out with high affinity amongst these young adults, increasing 22% in 2021 as a result of Covid-19.

Insight & Strategy
Young adults spend long hours glued to their seats when gaming, preferring to be uninterrupted even for meals. This was the perfect opportunity for KFC to build relevancy and top of mind with them. What better way to be relevant and get closer to young adults than with a collaboration with Malaysia’s no. 1 game, Mobile Legends Bang Bang (MLBB). And what better proposition for this segment than to have their delicious meals delivered to their doorstep with exclusive themed bundle meals to up the gaming marathon? We needed a platform partner that allowed us to gain as much voice and opportunity as possible within the gaming community. YouTube with +59% year-on-year watch-time growth and reaching potentially 18 million gamers became our platform of choice. With an exclusive partnership with YouTube, we dominated 100% share-of-voice across Mobile Legends properties (e.g. official eSports & MLBB channels) – we reached our players to the core and owned every single ad on this platform in the 3-months leading up to the playoffs. Reaching the segment was only one part of the battle, engagement and relevancy closed the loop for KFC, integrating the brand into the world of Mobile Legends. With the game characters being the soul of MLBB, KFC handpicked 11 that epitomized the qualities of our 11 secret herbs and spices. Themed meals and snacks were created to lure gamers alongside new limited-time-offer flavours to up their marathon gaming sessions throughout the activation.

Execution
For contextual relevancy, KFC’s tagline “Finger Lickin’ Good” was tweaked to “Finger Clickin’ Good” for the campaign. Why? To demonstrate to gamers that the key to their success, and tummies, all lay in a click towards KFC and the Powerup meal. At the core, we paired KFC products represented by different Mobile Legend characters that are most popular and instantly recognizable e.g. KFC’s most recognized Hot & Spicy was paired with the most famous character – Zilong whilst snack meal was represented by Miya the saviour, who is able to light up during darkness attack – just like how a KFC snack meal would fuel those dark hunger moments. Throughout the 3-month partnership, customized meals were launched bi-weekly according to the progress of the games. Every meal was positioned to enable players to level up according to theme of the week – be it ExtraLife, PowerUp, 515 or even a MVP (Most Valuable Player) meal. In the world of gaming, there are numerous codes and quests, each allowing gamers to progress to the next level. It was very important to us as we crafted the campaign execution to ensure that every layer had mechanics that would relate directly to gamers and their gaming desires. In-game branding: Throughout the partnership, every interaction was supported by in-game branding including placements within the map, IP usage, product usage and brand placement throughout all live-matches and broadcast, whereby the game-casters would also mention brand and products Secret codes: We planted secret codes across KFC’s social pages. Fans would be tasked to answer questions relating to MLBB with a minimum purchase on KFC App. Correct answers were rewarded with in-game diamonds that allow them to level up their game. 1 million worth of diamonds were given out to great delight of fans! Live stream: every next day after our You Tube Live stream, new questions will be posted to reward fans with even more rewards for their correct answers, keeping them engaged with KFC throughout the entire campaign. Gaming kits & influencers: Working with selected influential players and KOLs, we created money-can’t-buy exclusive gaming kits to showcase their influence and be the envy of many. Most Valuable Player (MVP): The partnership culminated in a final face-to-face event where KFC awarded the MVP with KFC merchandise and vouchers. This was how KFC attempted to make every layer of the game felt Finger Clickin’ Good!

Effectiveness
And it did! KFC MLBB specific bundles contributed to the following: • Campaign brought in 80% more new users vs planned. • Click-through rate performed 40% better than other delivery promotions. • Buzz uplift +47% amongst Young Adults (source: YouGov). • Purchase Intent uplift +77% amongst Young Adults (source: YouGov). • Sales uplift exceeded by +67% vs target. The campaign successfully reached 13.3mil unique YouTube viewers and specifically 71% of gaming audiences. We had a total of 2.08 million unique live-stream viewers, 114.2mil impressions served and captured 8.6mil live views. This is more than double the largest music show in the country! KFC became YouTube Malaysia’s Top Trending Gaming Content Champion between mid-August to mid-October! Proving that the right partnership in e-sports can lead to a Finger Clickin’ Good time in commerce!