General 5 — MATT HORTON CREATIVE

KFC

Experiencing dramatic lagging sales Yum realized the KFC – Kitchen Fresh Chicken campaign created by BBDO NY was not working. KFC needed help. Recruited by FCB, I led the creative and team in pitching the business and won it for the Chicago office. First to do was to get them back on track with taking pride in what they do– Frying Chicken. Our creation of Chicken Capital U.S.A. campaign gave KFC something to stand for again. Then, we got them to say the words Kentucky Fried Chicken out loud again, to take pride in what they do it better than anyone.
Some results were
• 2005 proved to be the greatest sales year in the history of Kentucky Fried Chicken
• Ended the year with 14 consecutive periods of same-store sales growth and three record-setting weeks.
• Product innovation satisfying customers demand for portability and affordability
• Introduced the KFC®Snacker which became the most successful QSR sandwich ever, selling over 238 million sandwiches in one year.
• Innovated the Build Your Own Variety Bucket initiative which let Mom build her own bucket, customizing to her family’s wants. We created a special task force of retired Ad moms, “The Mom Squad” to pressure test all the creative.
•Created The Flavor Station, an industry first that allowed customers to “be the boss” and “choose their sauce” on wings, strips, and more.

Soon after I left, the campaign was abandoned, clients left, and KFC's market share tumbled six full points to 30% in 2009. This is some of the most successful and insightful work ever done for KFC.

It’s called Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Power of the Bucket.

Family Meeting.

Flavor Dance.

Rocket Science.

In Charge.

Choose Your Sauce . Com - Choose your own adventure site.

A “Choose Your Own Adventure” website that demonstrated the freedom of being your own boss at KFC’s Flavor Station. While there have been “Choose Your Own Adventure” websites created in recent years this site pioneered the way in 2005 – before most of those other sites existed. We even hid some eater eggs in the video, like the ability to call a friend from the site with a mad-lib style voice message – a big deal at the time! All of this pulled off for an extremely low budget, shot on location in the FCB offices. Some of us doubled as ninjas in one of the scenes and… it would up winning a Webby Award.