KFC’s game-changing approach to mastering the delivery market

KFC wanted to launch its own delivery service in a crowded, competitive market — one that was occupied by third-party aggregator platforms and the brand’s heavy-spending main competitors, but that provided a tantalising opportunity as delivery and takeaway sales in 2022 for restaurants were double that of pre-Covid levels. KFC brought WPP Media’s Cross-Channel solution into its marketing kitchen to achieve its key business objectives and campaign goals: 

• Ensure KFC’s owned delivery service achieved profitability by acquiring enough (4.3% or higher) of total KFC Delivery sales via KFC’s owned delivery service 

• Boost app downloads, daily app users, and app transactions to acquire customers and drive sales 

• Reduce wastage by executing balanced media delivery in store delivery zones, with the aim for each adult to be exposed to a weighted cross-media delivery. 

To effectively and efficiently reach consumers in all these locations, KFC turned to WPP Media’s Integrated Cross-Channel solution for the launch of its delivery service with a first-of-its-kind national campaign.

Launching KFC’s delivery proposition at a national level, without getting drowned out by heavy-spending competitors, would require a highly targeted approach focused on SOV within viable audiences but at the same time would need to ensure reach at scale. 

In addition, the campaign would require a significant amount of agility to align with real time delivery capacity.

We solved this by constructing a campaign tailored to each postcode using a scaled cross-channel media mix, ensuring even delivery per location by assigning appropriate weighting to each channel.

A single addressable TV exposure, for example, is considered equal to 14 digital display exposures. This weighting methodology ensures that the campaign attained equal and maximum exposure in all areas, despite the slight variations in the media channel combinations used in each. 

This was only half the story, as real-time performance optimization was made possible through a first-of-its-kind dashboard that integrated KFC’s live app sales data with media delivery. Using our proprietary measurement solution, Reactive Media Attribution (RMA), KFC’s app sessions were linked to media expenditure by channel and postcode, enabling the campaign to continuously shift the media mix to drive better performance.

Using the dashboard allowed the campaign to be highly reactive, driving further efficiencies. In one example, when the offer in the creative was no longer available in 25 stores due to external factors, budget was instantly shifted elsewhere resulting in further reduced wastage. 

Our cross-channel activation exceeded business and campaign targets; the agile distribution of media budgets prioritized areas where delivery was available and deprioritised areas with low or declining delivery capacity, while the RMA dashboard drove further efficiencies, making the campaign work even harder.

We successfully delivered a nationwide campaign in the most agile way possible, specifically achieving: Gross Revenue ROI of 8.8, 38% higher than the 2022 all media average. 4.7% of all KFC Delivery sales were acquired via KFC’s owned delivery service vs 4.3% target.

Owned Delivery Campaign was the most efficient driver of KFC App Sessions of all campaigns that ran during 2022, 226% higher than the 2022 all media average. App traffic increased by 31%. RMA attributed 8x more app events to media than KFC’s last-click solution, demonstrating the performance impact of our Integrated Cross-Channel solution. RMA channel mix optimizations delivered 20% more app sessions with the same level of budget.

“WPP Media’s innovation connected near-live sales data from KFC’s individual franchises to a national, multi-channel campaign, transforming the launch of our delivery service. It enabled real-time optimisations that continually drove sales and ensured profitability, creating a reactive campaign that could be adjusted to real-world conditions. Due to the phenomenal capability of this approach to maximize results, we have been working to apply it to upcoming campaigns.”  Suzanne Perry, Head of Media UK & Ireland, KFC