BBH Unites Grime Legends With Gaming Stars for KFC Campaign

Gaming in 2016 is different to how it used to be, with most of the UK’s 33.5 million gamers today playing on their own rather than with friends. KFC, famous for bringing people together over a bucket of Original Recipe chicken, is seeking to unite this community once again with a unique social campaign created by BBH.

Gaming is already a big business, however many gamers are increasingly playing on their own, linked only to their friends or strangers by a headset from the confines of their own room. A unique social listening project from BBH Live, BBH’s creative and data driven social content unit, identified a 500 per cent rise in social conversations over the last three years surrounding the disappointment over the decline of split-screen gaming. 

Alongside this, social listening revealed an organic conversation amongst online gamers about KFC, which presented a unique opportunity for the brand to get involved and unite this community once again. 

To launch the campaign KFC created the ‘Colonel’s Couch’ - a gaming sofa designed to unite friends over their favourite games and food. The sofa is a gamer’s dream that has been specially designed with bucket holders, refillable drinks, chip trays, in-built speakers, lights that react to the gameplay and even wet wipe dispensers to keep fingers clean. 

To put the Colonel’s Couch to the test, KFC hosted a live event this weekend to bring the best talent in gaming - Ali A, Clare Siobhan, MiniMinter and JMX - together with top grime stars - Big Narstie, P Money, Novelist and D Double E. All the action was streamed on Facebook Live and Twitch, where viewers could watch them battle it out over some of their favourite games to see who would win free KFC chicken for life. In a media first, this marked the first time that Facebook has promoted a live stream. 

Initial results show that the campaign was a massive hit amongst fans. 87% of KFC's target audience have seen the campaign in less than five days, with the live stream reaching 2.7 million people. This is the highest level of organic reach ever for a KFC video.

Josh Benge, Social Media Manager at KFC commented: “We believe gaming is an occasion that should be shared with friends, so we were thrilled to see that the event - and the Colonel’s Couch - brought people back together, reigniting those friendly rivalries.”

Hamish Pinnell, Creative Director at BBH said: “It’s reassuring to see that even when doing a live stream event, it’s still high level production values, preparation and craft that make it a success. Keep an eye out for the next one."