Most YouTube ads are just adaptations of film commercials. Content that millennials can’t wait to click after the 5-second countdown. We decided to add highly-targeted context, by creating a Hot & Cheezy burger who flirted with the viewers, spouting pickup lines based on what the audience was searching for on YouTube.

Also. Malaysia is still a very TV-centric nation. Most made-for-tv commercials have already been seen by the audience, so adapting it into YouTube will just encourage them to skip the moment the 5-second counter goes down.

Using data supplied by google, we curated and shortlisted the top trending videos in Malaysia on YouTube weekly. Over 100 tailor-made pre-rolls were shot within a month, often based on fresh data from the day before.

We also optimized the media investment based on data we got on how consumers responded to the pre-rolls, removing ones that had low completion rates.

Media investment was optimised based on how consumers responded to the pre-rolls, removing ones that had low completion rates. We also released this campaign as a series of contextual digital banners.

We also created a profile for our burger on Tinder (dating application popular amongst millennials). Hot and Cheezy attracted attention by calling out to users to 'swipe me right' with its infamous cheesy lines. Matches on Tinder led to a 'date' at popular malls around town, where big interactive screens allowed the public to chat live

Viewing completion rates are touching 35% (breaking Google Malaysia’s record for pre-roll view through rates). These are strong results, given that the average view rate for any pre-roll campaign in Malaysia is only around 17%.

KFC Hot and Cheezy burger sales have increased by 16% week-on-week, immediately after the launch of Hot and Cheezy. It did so well they had a different marketing problem- KFC might run out of burgers to sell even before the campaign ends. This has been the best performing burger for KFC in many years.

Within two weeks of the campaign launch, Google also included Hot & Cheezy into their media gallery hall of fame, a repository of campaigns where people come for inspiration.