2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

LONELY VALENTINE SPECIALS

Bronze Lynx
BrandYUM RESTAURANTS INTERNATIONAL - KFC
Product/ServiceKFC
EntrantMEMAC OGILVY Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategorySocial Behaviour & Cultural Insight
Idea Creation MEMAC OGILVY Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
PR MEMAC OGILVY Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Production MEMAC OGILVY Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

We created different individual meals that would help the brain release different degrees of dopamine. During Valentine’s week, KFC created an exclusive brand experience for lonely single folk in a fun, relatable manner. While most brands spoke to those in love, we directed single people to our website to enjoy delicious chicken meals that would give them the same happiness of holding hands, cuddling, kissing etc.

Background

With Valentine’s Day becoming increasingly a cultural moment in the region that audiences connect with, especially our youth target audience, KFC wanted to reach out to them but not the typical audience brands speak to in this occasion, but instead we have realized there was a whole demographic of single people that brand tend to ignore as they might be irrelevant, those are the people we wanted to speak to as they are being left out. Our objective was to stay true to our audience in our communication and speak to them in a voice they would relate to. Our goal was to drive brand awareness and brand love effortlessly using the casual tonality of the messaging.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

For a lot of people, love might be the best feeling anyone can experience, but by the end of the day love is just a chemical reaction, chemical component C8H11NO2 to be exact also known as dopamine. You engage in acts of love, your brain releases dopamine, you feel happy, but dopamine isn’t exclusively connected to love, other activates can release dopamine as well such as eating a great tasting piece of KFC chicken. With this in mind, we created 5 individual KFC meals that would release varying degrees of dopamine to substitute the missing dopamine obtained from varies acts of love. Feel like a hug? Get the meal equivalent to the hug.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Our strategy was to speak to the youth; those who were single on Valentine’s Day. We targeted them based on their facebook relationship status and by using social listening. We responded to people who posted anti-valentine tweets and posted anything using #lonely.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

Owing to a minimal budget, we executed the entire campaign in-house. Our campaign launched 4 days before Valentine’s Day and ran only on Social media. We have targeted people on Facebook & Instagram with 5 unique assets with each asset communicating a different scenario that single people miss out on during Valentine’s Day (Holding hands, Cuddling, Peck on the Cheek & A kiss). To extend the experience beyond the social platforms, we’ve transformed the KFC website to include the meal’s and a bit of rebranding to show that there is a place for singles on Valentine’s Day. We reached out to people in UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman & Lebanon.

List the results (30% of vote)

This campaign is still live and we don’t have results as yet.

Please tell us about the social behaviour and / or cultural insights that inspired your campaign

We noticed how most brands speak only to couples and those in love. We realized that an entire demographic of single people were being ignored on Valentine’s day. We decided to use this to our advantage by speaking to our target group of youngsters in a tone of voice that they would relate to.

Credits

Name Company Role
Juggi Ramakrishnan Memac Ogilvy Dubai CCO
Gautam Wadher Memac Ogilvy Dubai Creative Director / Art Director
Alok Mohan Memac Ogilvy Dubai Creative Director / Copywriter
Tariq Hussein Memac Ogilvy Dubai Designer
Rhoderick Ballesteros Memac Ogilvy Dubai Editor
Hussein Krayem Memac Ogilvy Dubai Editor
Michael Marmito Memac Ogilvy Dubai Animation
Maya El Kai Memac Ogilvy Dubai Arabic Copywriter
Amin Soltani Memac Ogilvy Dubai Production
Ann Vaas Freelance Production
Ishana Tolani Memac Ogilvy Dubai Account Management
Maha Najem Memac Ogilvy Dubai Account Management
Maha Najem Memac Ogilvy Dubai Account Management
Mohammed Hijazi Memac Ogilvy Dubai Account Management
Damayanti Purkayastha Memac Ogilvy Dubai Strategy
Dana Naja Memac Ogilvy Dubai Strategy
Leena Maria Alyedreessy / Ruslan Belal Memac Ogilvy Dubai Social Team
Ralph Van Dijk Eardrum Audio Director
Ozge Zoralioglu YUM RESTAURANTS INTERNATIONAL - KFC Account Management
Dewald Du Plooy YUM RESTAURANTS INTERNATIONAL - KFC Account Management
Mahmoud El Karout YUM RESTAURANTS INTERNATIONAL - KFC Account Management
Hasan El Sheikh YUM RESTAURANTS INTERNATIONAL - KFC Account Management