In order to reach this new, younger audience, the brand’s founder, Colonel Sanders, began to appear in unexpected places in pop culture where we knew our audience would be. As part of this effort to appeal to these consumers, our creative idea was to partner with one of the oldest and largest names in comics—DC Comics—to create an original piece of branded content celebrating the Colonel and his values: Colonel Corps: Crisis of Infinite Colonels. To be as authentic as possible to DC Comics, the story integrated the Colonel into the existing DC Comics Multiverse, and treated the Colonel as if he were his own DC Comics superhero.

We first released a limited run of the physical comic book in person at San Diego Comic-Con, the epicenter of comic book culture. By beginning with these super fans, we brought credibility to Colonel Corps and cemented it as part of comic book culture. To make sure we got the most reach out of the execution, we then expanded to a larger audience, sharing the comic book with the press, posting it to KFC’s social channels, and making it available for download on Comixology, the Amazon.com of comics.

By creating a comic book and story that was authentic to the DC Universe and its fans, we were able to share the Colonel and his story with this new audience, generating over 37 million earned impressions. Best of all, Colonel Corps was so well received that ComicsAlliance even called it “the single best DC comic of the year.”