2024 Winner

While brands sponsor video games in hopes of making a lasting connection, KFC worked its iconic Colonel Sanders into the gaming world by hacking its way into one of the biggest video game launches last year. Street Fighter 6 debuted in 2023 with a new “Recipes” feature, which allowed players to create their own characters. Naturally, KFC created a bulked-up version of Colonel Sanders, and gave players the chance to turn their kick-and-punch combos into KFC food combos.

Players could share a clip of themselves doing a combo with Colonel Sanders in the game and KFC would then DM those players with a food combo deal in return. The harder the combo in the game, the better the deal from KFC. The campaign generated $16 million in earned media value and an 8% increase in sales. In the end, more than 2,302 combos were served.

Credits

Agency: Courage
Founder, CCO: Dhaval Bhatt
Founder, CCO: Joel Holtby
Partner, President: Niki Sahni
Partner, CSO: Tom Kenny
Executive Director of Development: Shannon Miller
ACD, Writer: Hemal Dhanjee
ACD, AD: Steve Ierullo
Senior Strategist: Lyndsey Westfall
Group Account Director: Alex Karayannides
Executive Producer: Clair Galea
Editor: Marcus Barrie

PR: Narrative
EVP Managing Director: Cathy Mitchell
Managing Director, Chief Creative Officer: Meredith Klapowich
Vice President: Lauren Baswick
Account Director: Daliah Hijazi Marsons
Account Manager: Sreeja Sasidharan
Account Manager: Holly Wilks

Client: KFC
Chief Marketing Officer: Katherine Bond-Debicki
Marketing Director: Azim Akhtar
Marketing Manager: Jordan Sequiera

Media: Wavemaker
CEO: Nikki Stone
Senior Media Planner: Blanca Gamez
Associate Director: Daniel Balment
Account Manager: Ani Hajderaj
Assistant Media Planner: Marcelyn Tran