KFC Canada is using one of its most famous brand assets to throw some serious shade at its QSR rivals in a quick-thinking campaign for Monday’s eclipse.
The social and digital out-of-home campaign from agency partner Courage uses the Colonel’s famous bucket, shot from a top-down perspective. It’s mostly cloaked in darkness, except for some barely glimpsed chicken crumbs at the bottom, while its outer rim shines like the edge of the sun peeking out from behind the moon.
The campaign is running on social, while the media buy from Wavemaker is also using digital out-home boards in and around Niagara Falls, where as many as one million people were expected to gather to watch the eclipse.
Courage founder and chief creative officer Joel Holtby said that KFC Canada’s director of marketing Azim Akhtar contacted the agency on Thursday asking if they had any ideas that might be suitable for an eclipse-related campaign.
“I was looking at a bucket and I said ‘Hey, from an angle that kind of looks like the eclipse,’” said Holtby. “I quickly sketched it with a pen, phoned Azim, and said, ‘We’ve got this idea that I think will be really fun,’ and he said ‘Cool, go do it.’”
The agency worked with CGI illustrator Brad Pickard, who has worked for brands including Pringles, Heinz Ketchup and Campbell’s. The finished product was ready by Friday at 4 p.m., said Holtby.
The creative is notable for the fact that all of the distinctive KFC assets are largely shrouded in darkness, with both brand and agency resisting the cliché of making the logo bigger, or in this case more visible.
If you’ve got a great idea, but if you don’t execute it well, it’s never going to go beyond a six out of 10,” said Holtby. “Logos aren’t a bad thing if they’re incorporated into the ad in a really smart way that feels natural.”
KFC and Courage have made a habit of creating impromptu campaigns that tap into cultural moments, from last year’s “Fixed It” campaign targeting McDonald’s launch of the Chicken Big Mac, to a campaign acknowledging NBA superstar LeBron James surpassing Kareem Abdul Jabbar to become the NBA’s all-time “king of buckets.”
Akhtar told Campaign that the eclipse provided another opportunity for the brand to drive engagement by being culturally relevant “in a distinctively KFC way.”
“Activations like these continue to deposit in building the brand, which in turn will drive long-term sustainable growth,” he said.
The eclipse ads are also running in international markets including France and South Africa. While neither country is in the path of the eclipse, Akhtar said that the eclipse conversation is happening around the world, and provided an opportunity for the brand to be similarly relevant in those markets.
It’s not the first time that Courage’s work for KFC Canada has been picked up around the world, with last year’s “Fixed It” campaign ultimately appearing in both the U.K. and South Africa when McDonald’s launched the Chicken Big Mac in those markets.
“Our goal is always to do the best work in the world on the brands we work on, so to see it travel is a wonderful thing,” said Holtby.
