2023 Bronze Design or Art Direction

Agency: RAPP

Client: KFC

Entry Name: KFC Rewards Arcade

Executive Summary

KFC needed to increase the frequency of customer visits in a crowded marketplace. Rivals offered lunchtime alternatives and McDonald’s stole share of voice by outspending the brand.

Strategy

Combining behavioural science, gamification, and data and analytics, RAPP tore up the loyalty rulebook to build the KFC Rewards Arcade: an epic immersive in-app experience that gives every customer the chance to be rewarded instantly after every purchase.

The programme was powered by an innovative ‘chicken algorithm’ to keep customers coming back, trying new menu items and sharing their experience with friends. It was supported by a multi-channel loyalty experience that nudges customers along their journey to more chicken.

Creativity

No stamp collecting. No reliance on frequency of visit. Customers could simply game their way to free chicken.

Built in the app, where KFC’s most valuable customers hang out, the virtual destination was a neon paradise with bucketloads of prizes, created as an explorable 3D environment.

The digital destination was supported by a mobile-first multi-channel customer journey that gently pecked chicken fans to purchase, play and redeem. Each journey flexed and redirected them to other channels depending on engagement, ensuring users received comms in their preferred channel, increasing likelihood to engage and purchase again.

Results

RAPP’s new recipe took KFC from Kentucky Fried Chicken to Kentucky Frequent Chicken.

In the first four months alone 1.3 million rewards were redeemed.

With an increased average customer frequency of 3%, KFC saw £1.27m incremental profit in the same period.

Use of the app has soared, with the number of weekly app transactions up by 22% and a 44% increase in daily app users. At the end of Q3, KFC UK reported the highest app engagement ever for the brand across Europe.

Cost-per-redemption was down 37% from £3.4m spent on the previous programme, Colonel’s Club.

The Team

RAPP - Emma Jose, Senior Project Manager - Tor Tompson, Business Director - Jordan Miller, Senior Account Director - Al Mackie, CCO - Gabrielle Ludzker, CEO - Shiona Mcdougall, Global Chief Strategy Officer - Jay Thom, Associate Strategy Director - Matt Wiseman, Planning Partner - Tain Joliffe, Strategy Director - Hiten Bhatt, Head of Design - Tristan Povey, Senior Designer - Simon Cheshire, Senior Designer - Joe Martin, Designer - Ryan Albuino - Will Clark - Caroline Garnar, Deputy Head of Copy & Content - Oz Osborne, Head of 3D and Motion Graphics - Melanie Herekar, VP Data Analytics - Raphaela Ring, Senior Data Strategist - Chris Slim, Senior Data Scientist - Matt Ingram, Vice President Data Analytics - Martin Chappell, Senior Data Analyst - Sally Marmont, Senior Tech Lead

KFC - Ruby Huang, CRM Lead - Aislinn Campbell, Senior Brand & Partnerships Manager - Vicki Mans, CRM Manager - Mostafa Ouanounou, Digitial Product Owner

Contributors

Antavo Enterprise Loyalty Cloud