‘Be more like Kanye’: How KFC found its swagger
From its ‘Shut up and take my money’ ads to its cheeky FCK apology over in the UK, KFC has recently embraced its inner Kanye. On stage at Mumbrella’s Retail Marketing Summit yesterday, Annabel Fribence, acting chief marketing officer at KFC, explored the left-of-centre mantras which enabled the brand to find its swagger.
KFC’s acting chief marketing officer Annabel Fribence has claimed halving the brand’s free-to-air television budget, launching a new ‘Shut Up and Take my Money’ brand positioning, taking risks, being “more Kanye” and driving emotional connection through advertising are the key mantras which helped fast food giant KFC find its swagger.
Fribence told the audience at Mumbrella’s Retail Marketing Summit that those mantras are how “KFC got its mojo back”, adding that the way KFC “found its swagger” was not textbook.
Can we take any of this seriously, given that “Kanye” is spelled “Kayne” in the presentation slides in the first two photos?
Let’s come up with a snazzy mantra… something the kids will love… then mis-spell the key word in the statement.
SMH
FCKing awesome. Dammit, inspirational even.
Be more Kanye or be more Kayne?
Both photos of the presentation say Be More Kayne.
Obviously not a real fan.
What a lot of double talk. Does she even know who Kanye West is? She can’t even get the spelling right!
Yep…..let’s see how sustainable this strategy is…..
It’s been going a couple of years. What’s your view on sustainable: forever?
“I really love the wrapper, ZJ pac biggie dogg.”
They broke the #1 rule in marketing and forgot that detail is everything.
Hilarious. Morons worrying about a typo when we have a marketer and agency aligned producing the best work in Aus.
If all you critics are so great, why aren’t you on stage giving the talk?
Detail is dead dudes. People (consumers) don’t have the time, energy or knowledge to check spelling. Get over the typo and see the bigger picture. This is a great campaign and it’s worked. Bums on seats trumps typos every single day of the week.
Spelling Kanye West’s name as “Kayne” in foot-high letters and standing in front of it to be photographed is not a typo, it’s a blunder of the first order. And now they’ve run out of gravy!
If you were a C-Level exec, and told your board ‘detail is dead dudes’ as an excuse for your presentations woeful quality checking, you’d be gone.
Keep living the fantasy.
I agree, KFC’s latest work makes it stand out from the crowd. The brand is growing from strength to strength and is just on fire at the moment. With lady in charge I am excited to see what the future holds for the brand.
Never seen any of the said 6 to 15 second KFC ad and I’m love a bucket of fried chicken so not sure about the brand’s cut through.
Also, why are you taking credit for something the UK and their agency has come up with?
It’s ok everyone, this is just an ‘Acting’ CMO.
The KFC presentation was truly inspiring and refreshing. It would be fantastic if more marketers follow Annabe’ls lead, be brave and be prepared to take more risks instead of worrying about getting fired or not getting a pay rise or promotion. Organisations are falling behind due to their marketers personal agendas and as a result fail to be as innovative, creative or as successful as they can be. Mediocre efforts equal mediocre results, why bother be in Marketing if you aren’t prepared to push the boundaries and be the best you can possibly be. The presentation was entertaining, honest and Annabel gave credit to her agency Ogilvy who it appears have a fantastic working relationship with the KFC team. It was the best presentation on the day and it was so engaging that I did’t notice the spelling mistake.
“Annabe’ls, why bother be in Marketing, I did’t notice the spelling mistake”… I can’t think why you didn’t notice it!
Kanye spelling aside (proof-reading is your friend people), are people really saying that a campaign that copies its tagline from a meme (and an almost eight year old meme at that) is really the best work Australia is doing right now?
Macca’s – if you want to shift some paradigms too, why not put out a I Can Has Cheezburger ad?
Car Insurance Agencies – you could have a car hitting a pole with an EPIC FAIL overlay.
Dog Food Companies – you could have a doge ad with: much food, so tasty, such wow.
ERMAHGERD – advertising is easy when you get all your ideas from Reddit four years ago.
I wonder if commenters SO ‘KFCING GOOD’ and ‘Totally Awesome’ share the same IP address?
Imagine an evangelist, delivering a sermon to his (it’s usually a he isn’t it) flock withj the word D O G behind him…
withj is a typo before anyone gets excited ‘lolz’
Isn’t saying ‘Know that no-one gives a shit about you’ and ‘Accept not everyone will love you’ the same thing?
It’s always amusing when some pedant tries to be a smartar$e, yet gets it wrong.
No, they are not the “same thing”.
‘Know that no-one gives a shit about you’ is in reference to the apathy most people have towards brands. Once you inject some personality to stand out from the crowd, ‘Accept not everyone will love you’ is stating that such a move is always likely to have its detractors.
There is no doubt KFC is a much stronger brand today than what is was five years ago. Rather than learning from the presentation, it is extraordinary that so many armchair critics will sit on here slagging off about the typo and job title.
To Annabel Fribence – bloody well done.
Hmmmm,
Seems like immature blunders of an “acting CMO” taking stage for the first time, thinking she’s a rock star – misspelling the rock star’s name, mis-judging her audience – and being apathetic to all. Yep, sounds like the “acting CMO” is ready to be the CMO!
Reminds me of a CUB speach blunder about the “Boonie Doll”, some eight years ago
Reminds me of the person who misspelled ‘speech’ while trying to make a snarky point about misspelling.
(of course, you must speak at conferences all the time, and no doubt you’re better than that Boonie Doll speech from eight years ago)
Thats why the copy should reflect the ‘new tone’ more. Its very corporate body copy and Kayne is a pretty bad typo, but all in all this is a good internal mantra and brand positioning.
Her rhetoric sounds like a good planner that really knows what they are talking about, and it feels like a true strategy sold in to the C-suite of KFC, probably with contrasting reference to C+P Burger King work and the student portfolio rip off ‘McWhopper’.
At least however this shows a big brand truly having a reality check in the new transparent world we live in, its a fcking bucket of chicken at the end of the day, and thats that.
It’s still greasy fried chook and always will be #yuk
I’m totally on team KFC here… quality approach
Yeah, what the lady said … Be more Kenya.
Of all the pedantic posts re misspelling, this one’s the winner. Props.
Ok, isn’t it time to move this “acting anything” and article off your feature page? #welloverit
Ha ha. ‘Shut up and take my monye’.
What if Kayne made a song about Kayne?
Called “I Miss The Old Kayne,” man that would be so Kayne