Challenge

The Korean wave in Malaysia cannot be understated – locals have grown to love everything related to the culture including its love for Korean fried chicken! Riding on Malaysians’ fandom and enthusiasm for K culture, KFC launched their own version – the K-Cheese Crunch!

The challenge was not the product though – it was the highly saturated and competitive market, flooded by fast-food chains that offer similar flavours with minimal distinction. More and more Korean fried chicken franchises entering the Malaysian food scene didn’t help either. So how can KFC stand out in its own authentic way?

Solution

The answer lay in tapping into the zeal of K-fans, known for their intense passion and eagerness to showcase their fandom. The idea was to create a nationwide ‘Daebak K’ movement to get people excited about the new flavour launch and celebrate their love for Korean culture by showing us that they are the most ‘Daebak K’ of all.

Our insight: K-fans crave an immersive K-culture experience. To capture their attention and kickstart the ‘Daebak K’ movement, we explored Malaysians’ love for dramatic content and humour, leading us to ‘Projek: High Council’. With over 1 mil unique viewers on Astro Go and Video On Demand (VOD), this local series amassed a unique fandom on TikTok with over 1 bil views and counting.

Inspired by the ‘dubbed meme video’ trend, we ‘Koreanised’ this drama, turning our local actors into ‘oppas’ by redubbing scenes of them speaking entirely in Korean, humorously centered around cravings for KFC’s K-Cheese Crunch. Then, we launched a fun, social challenge to find the biggest ‘Daebak K’ fan ever. Fans turned into active participants as they showcase their Korean-ness for the chance to unlock a once-in-a-lifetime K-experience in Korea.

Spanning across social media, digital, radio and OTT channels for optimal reach, we deployed 3 phases:

1. Awareness

  • Viral-worthy, dubbed episodes promoted across sooka, Astro GO and social media platforms to capture attention of drama and K-fans and get them talking.

2. Visibility

  • A dedicated section ‘KFC DAEBAK K’ in sooka, highlighting the specially dubbed content and other Korean-themed material.
  • Prime time domination on Astro’s K-channel, ONE, with KFC’s commercial run including opening & closing credits, branded promos and breakers.
  • Branded advertorials and social postings shared across Astro’s digital platforms.

3. Engagement

  • The “SAYA DAEBAK K” challenge kickstarted on ERA, Malaysia’s top Malay radio station, allowing fans to express their Korean-ness on Instagram and TikTok, while enjoying K-Cheese Crunch and for a chance to compete for a trip to Korea.
  • Radio ads and postings by content creators on major Malay platforms like Gempak, Media Hiburan, and Remaja drew hype for the contest and encouraged participation.

Results:

The ‘Daebak K’ campaign yielded impressive results for KFC, significantly impacting sales, reach and engagement.

1. Sales Impact

  • KFC experienced an increase in sales and transaction number during the campaign period, as compared to the same period in the previous year, surpassing projections!
  • The K-Cheese Crunch became an instant sensation, a testament to the campaign’s effectiveness in driving product demand.

2. Reach

OTT, Digital and Social Media

  • Recorded 4.4 million views across Astro’s OTT and digital platforms.
    • Garnered a total of 6.3 million impressions.

Radio

  • An estimated 6,393,000 listeners heard the campaign, an average of 10.6 times each during the campaign period (19 June – 10 July 2023).

3. Engagement

  • Achieved over 57,000 engagements, reflecting high levels of interaction and interest among consumers.