Exclusive: KFC India creative business on pitch; Ogilvy is the incumbent
The country's top agencies are participating in the pitch to bag KFC India's creative mandate.
Fast food brand KFC India’s creative mandate is up for grabs, with top agencies participating in the pitch to get the business in the capital, Delhi. The incumbent on the account is WPP-owned Ogilvy.
According to a recent YouGov report, 42 percent urban Indians choose KFC as their favourite QSR (quick service restaurant) or fast food chain. The report also stated that KFC is very popular in the south of India, where 59 percent of Gen X-ers choose it as their favourite chain. India’s Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) chain market is set to post a market size CAGR of 32 percent during FY23-27. Pan-India there are 1.05 fried chicken outlets per million, which shows penetration opportunity for fried chicken, making analysts positive on India’s QSR players like Devyani International and Sapphire Foods India which operates KFC, the Yum Brands!-owned franchise.
An Elara Capital report noted, the market share of KFC and fried chicken has seen a boost post COVID, rising from 7 percent in FY19 to 10 percent in FY22. Competition has been less in the fried chicken category. Popeyes is the only large global competitor with a presence in India, but it has a mere 32 stores in India currently. The figure is too low to make any huge negative impact to KFC’s market share in India, the report noted
“Fried chicken would continue to outperform pizza on new store expansion, and adoption of non-vegetarian food, which would drive better same store sales growth (SSSG) than peers," said Elara Capital analysts Karan Taurani and Rounak Ray in a report.
Last year, KFC India partnered with PivotConsult, the martech arm of Havas company’s PivotRoots, to enhance customer life cycle and optimise lifetime value across offline stores and online touchpoints.
In September 2023, KFC India launched a campaign ahead of International Day of Sign Languages, using its bucket, to raise awareness for Indian Sign Language. The specially designed Sign Language Bucket featured step-by-step visual tutorials of commonly used words and phrases, giving consumers a chance to learn how to communicate in Indian Sign Language (ISL). Terms such as ‘Hello’, ‘Please’, ‘Good Morning’, ‘How are you’, ‘Have a good day’, ‘Lol’, ‘What’s up?’ as well as numbers and sizes take center stage on the bucket.
The Sign Language Bucket and the #SpeakSign campaign are part of KFC India’s Kshamata program, which is aimed at feeding people’s potential, and bridging the gender and ability gap. Through the Kshamata program, KFC India is committed towards empowering women and the speech and hearing-impaired at their restaurants.
