KFC in Thailand is a mature and long-established brand. It was time to refresh consumers’ feeling toward the brand and strengthen emotional engagement with locals.

2014 marked KFC Thailand’s 30th anniversary. It was a great opportunity to make the global brand feel more personal and loved by Thais. The strategy was to turn a global icon into a local hero with the idea ‘So Thai, So Good’ and deepen the bonds of love and intimacy for consumers.

KFC resurrected Colonel Sanders as the brand ambassador that Thais could love. He lived and learned authentic Thai ways of life. Understanding and living as a local, he shared his activities via social media and enjoyed having conversations with his fans, having real meet and greets with Thais wherever he went. He became the most approachable local celebrity that everyone was surprised to see, and looked forward to seeing him. In Thai, he was called ‘Uncle Ken’, who now became both a family member and the true local hero who gained love from Thais.

The result within one month was beyond expectation. The story of Uncle Ken reached over 4o million impressions and was picked up by top celebrities and websites in Thailand. The number of engagements generated KPI higher than 140%. Not only did the campaign succeed in creating an emotional connection, it broke sales records with sales growth of 35%.

Unlike other brand ambassadors or celebrities, Colonel Sanders didn’t live fancily or with a VIP lifestyle. He lived as normal and local people did. We believed that this would be a surprise for all Thais.

The way Uncle Ken built relationships with others was as same as real people do for their new relationships. He had Facebook conversations, Twitter, photo-sharing and even selfies! Like all Thais do!

Starting with relevant-to-local content, we shared the picture of Uncle Ken who learned about Thai culture via owned social media. We also gave the opportunity for consumer to meet and greet real Uncle Ken in person wherever he went.

The other key content generator was consumers who were impressed and willing to share their meeting story with Uncle Ken. The story went viral and invited their friends to become a part of KFC’s family.

Within one month, the story of Uncle Ken reached over 4o million impressions, double the KPI, and also generated earned media values $3.95 million from many top celebrities, mass medium, especially in CNN website, Thailand’s top 3 variety websites and entrainment TV channel.

The return of investment is 1:42

The number of engagements within one month that occurred from sharing the photo and clip of Uncle Ken in KFC’s Thailand only channel generated KPI higher than 140%

Positive response increased our brand love by 73%. The level of intimacy started from the target admiring Uncle Ken. They wanted to meet him and love Uncle Ken to love KFC.

Even more impressive, the campaign resulted in +35% total sales value growth and drove overall sales volume growth for KFC by +38%, breaking all previous campaign records.