Secret Menu
KFC Australia
Issue 54 | March 2020
Agency
Ogilvy Australia
Creative Team
Group Creative Director Shaun Branagan Copywriter Wilson Kwong Senior Copywriter Nathan Moraza Art Director Ash Myburgh
Production Team
Digital Project Director Gareth Morgan Senior Digital Project Manager Jonathan Pedreira Technical Director Dan Adijans
Other Credits
Group Account Director Cassie Poiner Senior Account Director Mireille Pons Account Manager Jordana Smith Head of Strategy Ryan O'Connell Senior Digital Account Manager Emilie Ammann Senior Account Director, Ogilvy PR (OPR) James Curtis Senior Account Manager, Ogilvy PR (OPR) Taylor York Senior Creative, Ogilvy PR (OPR) Stephen Maher Account Manager, Ogilvy PR (OPR) Sophie McIntosh Account Executive, Ogilvy PR (OPR) Tom Fogarty Client Chief Marketing Officer Kristi Woolrych Marketing Director Mike Forster Brand Managers Steven Jin, Olajoke Amosun
Date
Ongoing
Background
Online ordering was an increasingly important sales channel in the fast food industry. KFC had previously successfully launched its own app, but now faced two challenges: One, 77% of app users uninstalled within three days.
Two, in-store staff had not become entirely converted to in-app ordering.
The task was to find a radically different way to attract (and keep!) app users and increase staff engagement.
Idea
It was discovered that KFC employees loved hacking the menu to invent ridiculous new products. The idea was to immortalise their cult creations in an exclusive Secret Menu in the app. While UX principles say the customer experience should be as frictionless as possible, KFC did the complete opposite, hiding the Secret Menu deep within the app and telling no-one about it. Eagle-eyed fans might have noticed a new Colonel icon hidden in the order section but what they didn’t know was that if they swiped and held the menu down for 11 seconds (like the 11 secret herbs and spices, geddit?), they’d find the Secret Menu, offering such delights as the Nut-ALot Burger, made with chicken nuggets, and The Kentucky Slider or a KFC Snack Pack of chips topped with popcorn chicken and hot sauce.
Cryptic clues were buried in the T&Cs, hidden in email footers and even flashed as subliminal second long blips in digital OOH. All that was left to do was wait until, eventually, someone figured it out.
When that happened, the internet went wild.
And the best part? Every time the menu was updated, it happened all over again.
Results
While most app campaigns boosted shortterm boosts, the KFC Secret Menu continued to deliver in the long term. To date, over 430 million media impressions have been achieved leading to an increase in app downloads, retention rate, and upsell rate.
Finally, showcasing KFC crew members’ creations in the Secret Menu helped staff engagement go through the roof.
Our Thoughts
These unexpected treats turn out to be part of an intriguingly innovative loyalty programme that KFC has been operating for a couple of years, a programme with no name and no members. For two years, KFC have been offering customers unexpected rewards, such as a dollar off a purchase, early access to an offer and even being tipped off before anyone else about a Secret Menu and how to locate it.
The results, which KFC want to keep under wraps, have been amazing.
Don’t you just love it when an insight (people enjoy being on the inside of a secret that others don’t know about) and an idea (take the weird meals KFC staffers have invented and make them available) come together to increase sales? It’s what advertising is supposed to be about, after all.