2023 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

With more than 40,000 restaurants in over 100 countries, McDonald’s is the world’s largest fast food chain by a pretty wide margin. In Canada, McDonald’s outdoes KFC in pretty much everything — they spend 10 times more on marketing, have twice as many stores, have 8 times the market share, and have 10 times the share of voice. But while McDonald’s is inarguably the leader in fast food, they aren’t the leader when it comes to fried chicken — that’s KFC’s territory.

So when the big, bad burger chain decided to steer into KFC’s lane with the launch of the Chicken Big Mac, a new twist on their signature sandwich, KFC wasn’t just going to watch it happen without doing anything. Their brief was to rain on McDonald’s launch day parade and reinforce their status as the undisputed champs when it comes to chicken. So how can KFC hijack the conversation on the Chicken Big Mac launch day?

If KFC has the best chicken, then any chicken sandwich would instantly be better with KFC’s famous fried chicken. Early reviews critiqued the Chicken Big Mac's small, uninspiring patties. And research proved KFC's chicken was both better looking and tasting, giving us the confidence to challenge the world's leading
fast food chain.

The agency’s idea was to ‘fix’ the underwhelming Chicken Big Mac by replacing its meager chicken patties with their generous, mouth-watering KFC fried chicken.

Within minutes of McDonald’s Canada announcing the launch on Twitter, KFC responded with a simple Tweet: “There, we fixed it,” along with an image of the upgraded Chicken Big Mac—visuals of the Big Mac with KFC’s mouth-watering chicken paired with the hashtag #betterwithKFC. The campaign called out McDonald’s and its underwhelming entry into the chicken wars, and invited sandwich lovers, influencers, and media outlets to weigh in on who’s chicken was actually worth celebrating.

After KFC’s post, a Twitter war unfolded in real time. McDonald’s responded to KFC’s upgraded Chicken Big Mac with, “You don’t have to fix what’s already perfect bestie,” to which KFC replied “Taste test?” The playful banter continued for a couple of days. But they didn’t stop there, they took it to actual McDonald's locations with truck-sized billboards in front of their golden arches. Canadians and the media took notice, and their response-driven campaign made national and international news. Then the agency made it real by adding “The Big Fix '' to KFC’s secret menu – driving customers in-store to try the brand’s version of the Chicken Big Mac made entirely with KFC ingredients. The agency then partnered with prominent food influencers like @mukbangmaxwell, who helped spread the word on social media, prompting Canadians to buy it and film their reviews on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

The brand’s campaign was an overnight success quickly attracting 100k in free local, national, and international news coverage. Within days it amassed over 10 million impressions — equivalent to over a quarter of Canada's population.

The agency’s ambitious goal to hijack the conversation was met with an impressive 18x increase in earned media compared to paid. The debate not only fueled a 72% increase in social engagement, but it also generated an 86% rise in positive brand perception for KFC. Best of all, it had a remarkable impact on the business, boosting sales by 5.1% and generating an impressive 2859% return on spend. And it was all done for only $30,000 all in.

Despite McDonald's having more marketing dollars, locations, and social media followers, KFC successfully threw a wet blanket on their much-anticipated launch of the Chicken Big Mac. The brand hijacked the conversation and in doing so, reminded Canadians that when it comes to chicken, everything's better
with KFC.

Credits

Agency
Courage
Founder + CCO: Dhaval Bhatt
Founder + CCO: Joel Holtby
Partner + President: Niki Sahni
Partner + CSO: Tom Kenny
ACD, Writer: Hemal Dhanjee
ACD, Art Director: Steve Ierullo
Writer: Matt Miller
Art Director: Tommy Yong
Account Director: Amna Khalid
Executive Producer: Clair Galea


Production
Fuze Reps
CGI Artist - Pierre Bourjo
Case Study Photographer - Sandy Nicholson