Digital case study: KFC parodies young millionaires

Author: CIMCOM

Fast food chain KFC launched its cheapest ever meal deal in Romania with a fun, digital campaign on Instagram. The #LittleMoneyBigFun campaign parodied the existing #RichKidsOfInstagram. KFC challenged fans to pick out a famous Rich Kid Instagram lifestyle photo and upload their own side-by-side version.

The challenge: cheap but not about money

KFC wanted to raise awareness of its cheapest ever meal deal. But it didn’t want to emphasise money saving budgets, instead its focus was that you don’t need lots of money to enjoy life’s luxuries; to have fun you simply need the right attitude.

The solution: a campaign with attitude

Agency, MRM//McCann Romania, created a fun campaign that customers could get involved with and show their attitude to life. It played upon the extravagant lifestyles of the #RichKidsOfInstagram. This is an Instagram feed and hashtag, which was turned into a Tumblr account, with pictures of users' lavish lifestyles: exotic holidays, luxury cars, and fast living.

By contrast KFC's campaign,’Distractie cu bani putini’, which translates as "Little Money Big Fun" is based on user-generated content, where people replicate the sentiment with an ironic, non-monied version of the lifestyle.

Little Money Big Fun had a presence on Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and a gallery on KFC's own website. Through gamification of the Instagram images, KFC enabled fans to get creative and amplify its everyday, affordable, luxury message.

Side-by-side: pictures from the gallery

A Rich Kid poses in shades with a private chopper whilst a KFC customer looks serious about his diminutive toy helicopter.

A Rich Kid pours Dom Pérignon vintage champagne costing over £100 onto a turkey whilst KFC customers enjoy a KFC Smart Menu combo meal for 11.90 Romanian Leu, that’s £1.89.

A Rich Kid wears an oversized diamond whilst a KFC customer wears their hand-drawn rock on a sticking plaster.

The results: sales are up

• The irony of the super rich and not so super rich lifestyles captured the public’s imagination and the focus on #RichKidsOfInstagram earned KFC headlines, generating over €1m in free media.
• The campaign became the number 1 Twitter trending topic in Romania.
• The #LittleMoneyBigFun campaign increased KFC’s presence on social media and earned media which led to an increase in sales at KFC of 21%.