How Wunderman Thompson and KFC Made a Bucket Hat Go Viral

Combining crispy delights with fashionable flair, KFC Thailand’s bucket hat has become a local phenomenon, increasing brand engagement by 285%.

Speaking to LBB’s Tom Loudon, KFC Thailand chief marketing officer Suhayl Limbada divulged the campaign's inspiration and the secrets behind its connection with diverse audiences.

Delving into the campaign's origins and the elements that contributed to its remarkable success, including that spike in brand engagement, Suhayl revealed how user-generated content played a pivotal role in amplifying the campaign's reach and impact.

LBB> The Bucket Hat frenzy by KFC Thailand garnered significant attention and engagement. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind this quirky and creative campaign?

Suhayl> The campaign was designed to build brand love through KFC's iconic asset, which can deliver its famed quality bucket. We also wanted to spread happiness to consumers with a bucket of crispy deliciousness, a secret recipe, and a hat. KFC Thailand always initiated campaigns based on consumers’ insight, behaviour, and mindset.

Thais believe that nothing is free and no real good deal exists. From this mindset, KFC Thailand then came up with the idea of ‘Simple as that, at KFC, you can have a real freebie!’ That’s what we communicated by bringing questions and thoughts of consumers into the TVC’s dialogue, which not only brought fun to target audiences but was strongly relevant and connected to them.

LBB> The promotion saw an incredible 285% increase in brand engagement. What elements of the campaign do you think contributed to this impressive response from customers?

Suhayl> The campaign’s result was sensational and viral thanks to a complete marketing and communication strategy, including The most valuable promotion of both a bucket of delicious crispy fried chicken and a bucket hat – a brand iconic that people love. The playful and distinctive idea is KFC's way and is able to strongly relate and be relevant to consumer’s insight. The promotion plan was able to reach out and create massive awareness among targets via the effectively integrated communication plan that eventually created an impact of UGC around KOLs and consumers.

LBB> Thousands of customers posted ‘hatfies’ and videos showcasing their unique styles with the KFC Bucket Hat. How do you feel this aspect of user-generated content helped to amplify the campaign’s impact?

Suhayl> It did prove that UGC can strongly reflect how much love consumers have for KFC, as well as in our promotional campaign. This also created a FOMO situation, which made the bucket hat run out in only 10 days. The UGC is the key factor that made a significant change to make the bucket hat go viral and out of stock very fast.

LBB> The campaign seemed to resonate with a wide audience, from young to old. How did you ensure that the Bucket Hat promotion connected with such a diverse range of customers?

Suhayl> KFC is a brand for everyone. Consumer analysis on their behaviour, insights and mindset, including data analysis, as well as the plan and strategy that really create talk and make an impact on targets in all groups. Our bucket hat is an inclusive item that people of any age and gender can wear and relate to, thanks to its iconic design. This helped leverage the campaign going viral among all mass consumers. From the mindset that Thais believe nothing is free and no real good deal exists, the idea of “Simple as that” was created to perfectly complete and answer their needs.

LBB> The Bucket Hat giveaway resulted in a national sell-out within just 10 days. Were you expecting this level of demand, and how did you manage the logistics of such a popular promotion?

Suhayl> It is all about using data to plan and strengthen the campaign from forecast analysis on traffic, consumer behaviour and trends. When launching the campaign, we kept monitoring daily to make sure that we could move fast to distribute and stock the bucket hat effectively. Also, we did work closely on cross-functional communication.

LBB> The campaign not only generated buzz but also seemed to create a sense of fun and family engagement. How important is it for KFC to create these emotional connections with customers through innovative campaigns?

Suhayl> Apart from quality products and service as well as seductive and yum promotions, it is very important to always make sure that we always create emotional connections with our customers and consistency, as it’s one of our key strategies to strengthen brand love. Because when people love KFC, they will think of us first among those QSR brands or even other parts of the food industry.

LBB> The Bucket Hat frenzy became a viral phenomenon of brand love and appreciation. How does this success align with KFC’s overall branding and marketing strategy?

Suhayl> The Bucket Hat campaign is a successful campaign that built brand love across all target groups, from youngsters to the silver age, due to the campaign mechanics and Bucket Hat’s design. The campaign was created according to the brand’s strategies that always initiate exciting and distinctive marketing campaigns with the consumer-led mindset and a condition of ‘no condition’ that impresses and sits in the heart of consumers.

LBB> The promotion was tied to the Porjai Bucket Menu. Can you share more about how this menu ties into the larger message and value that KFC aims to convey to its customers?

Suhayl> We tied this menu of Porjai Bucket to the campaign as it’s the most valued in terms of what customers get after purchasing at an affordable price. The Porjai Bucket consists of everyone’s favourites, and “porjai” in Thai means “satisfied”, which is related and linked back to the win-win situation of the campaign. Customers are satisfied the most when they get a “Bucket Hat” for free after purchasing a Porjai Bucket only at 199 baht.

LBB> The Bucket Hat campaign seems to have blended the iconic KFC asset with a touch of fashion and lifestyle. How do you see such campaigns contributing to KFC’s brand legacy and identity?

Suhayl> Using our iconic asset like ‘bucket,’ which has a long history since the brand was born, and when people see it, they can relate to KFC even without a logo on the bucket. This literally proves how much the brand is well recognised. We are so happy with the feedback from customers all over the internet that they talked about and wore our Bucket Hat on their social media. This is also a proof point that KFC is in the stage of being a hype brand they love and helps complete their style in a way, as well as not only being a fried chicken brand but a lifestyle brand that people enjoy.

LBB> As you mentioned, KFC has more in store for fans in the upcoming months. Could you provide a sneak peek into what customers can expect next and how you plan to maintain the momentum generated by this successful campaign?

Suhayl> Recently, we created a viral on the internet and a buzz on the ground during the national Mother’s Day in which we created a brand collaboration with big-name family favourites to replace the ‘mother’ in their brand logos and packaging - and even brand names of various ‘mother’ brands in Thailand. Colonel Sanders initiated his crispy idea of Operation ‘Let Mom Rest’, recognising Motherhood as a superhero’s job that takes no holidays and the need for Thai families to recognize that a mother’s duty should not be hers to carry alone.

The Colonel challenged partners and family members to take over household chores and family care and appreciate everything their moms do. The result was astounding! 

Mother’s Kitchen Oyster Sauce transformed into ‘Father’s Kitchen Oyster Sauce’; Mother’s Rice transitioned into ‘Father's Rice’ and Mother’s Boiled Bamboo into ‘Father’s Boiled Bamboo!’ Another recent successful campaign we played around International Dog Day called “KFC BONE TIE'' created an impact on offline and online conversation among those pet lovers. The campaign is to raise awareness on the harmful effects of giving cooked chicken bones to dogs (from most seen behaviours of Thais) and to replace this instead with the world’s first dog snack - made with love from our KFC yummy chicken bones and reshaped into the Colonel’s iconic bow tie. 

So stay tuned! We have plenty of fun campaigns welcoming this high season in Thailand.