KFC is offering free food to posties after a sacking scandal.
In July, Australia Post sacked a postman for driving his Australia Post van to a KFC restaurant in Newcastle while on the clock.
The ‘finger licking good’ restaurant has thrown its support to posties by using a clever way to make their visits a part of the delivery run.
KFC has sent postcards that need to be delivered to local KFC outlets, encouraging the workers to ‘go full chicken on us’.
Ogilvy worked on the idea with the KFC marketing team, which is led by CMO Vanessa Rowed.
“When the postie story broke, it had all the ingredients of a moment KFC could genuinely add value to rather than just piggyback on,” Ogilvy’s Head of Consumer PR and Influence James Curtis said.
“It wasn’t about forcing the brand into a news story for the sake of visibility. It was about finding an authentic angle that played into KFC’s long-standing reputation for having a laugh with its audience.”
“The idea of turning the very thing that got someone in trouble into an ‘official excuse’ felt like a natural, cheeky extension of the story that Australians were already talking about, and gave the brand a reason to be part of that conversation rather than just commentating on it.”
The KFC Postcards give delivery drivers a legitimate reason to visit one of the store on the job, “turning the very scenario that got someone fired into a sanctioned, fun bit of brand mischief.”
“It was low cost, high impact, and designed to travel quickly through the news cycle and social media while the story was still hot,” Curtis said.
Curtis said that brands often need to move fast to react to the news cycle and become part of a cultural moment, rather than move at the pace of the traditional campaign approval process.
“Reactive earned work like this is so effective because it meets consumers where they already are, emotionally invested in a story, rather than asking them to engage with a brand message cold. When done well, it doesn’t feel forced, it feels like the brand is in on the joke with everyone else,” Curtis said.
“That’s how you build real brand love, by adding genuine entertainment value and giving people something worth sharing, rather than just shouting louder.
