KFC turns 50 in South Africa - Sends fans on a Gold Rush

Opportunity to win Gold (South Africa’s most valuable resource) worth over $3.3 Million

9th April 2021 - This year, KFC South Africa will be celebrating its 50th anniversary, which is the golden anniversary. To commemorate the occasion, KFC South Africa turned its first-ever restaurant GOLD overnight, and it has created a Golden Bucket scavenger hunt, which has South African fans hunting for up to R50 million (over $3.3 million) in real gold tokens.

And its Gold Rush with a digital twist. Not only can South African customers stand a chance to win just by purchasing any KFC Golden Bucket, but the South African marketing team have also launched an Augmented Reality (AR) ‘KFC Gold Hunt’ for Vatoms – a first for the local market - where fans can stand a chance to win additional prizes and KFC menu items, as well as MORE real gold.

By registering on the KFC Gold Hunt site (www.kfcgoldhunt.co.za) and, using a smartphone, Golden Buckets can be found, viewed and caught in Augmented Reality, which are then kept in a Gold Vault until revealed and redeemed. However, true to KFC’s digital agility and distinctive focus one experience, the hunt innovation goes beyond that as unlike standard AR campaigns where visuals are layered over ‘reality’ KFC Golden Buckets will actually be Vatoms – unique digital objects. So, for the first time locally, the element of relative scarcity will also be introduced to a marketing execution.

“Golden Anniversaries deserve a special celebration and so we wanted to go for gold through our famous iconic buckets – literally. Our buckets, with our distinctive core ingredient imagery, has always been a hero in our marketing and as we celebrate 50 years – they once again take the lead,” says General Manager: KFC RoSSA and Chief Marketing Officer of KFC Africa, Dhruv Kaul. “KFC boast a distinctive brand architecture that has always been customer-centric, and this celebration is an opportunity for us to thank those that have made the iconic brand the success it is today, from our teams to our franchise network, managers, the dedicated store employees and lastly, but most crucial, our devoted fans that have supported KFC with their patronage over the past five decades.”

All that glitters just might be gold

As South Africans ‘dig in’ for their chance to win their share of R50 million in gold, to add to the shine – the first store in the country, situated in Orange Grove, Johannesburg (also known as the city of gold in South Africa) got its gold makeover – literally overnight. The restaurant has been serving the brand’s famous fried chicken in the perfected secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices since it first opened in 1971, serving approximately 150 000 customers every year or 7.5 million customers since inception.

“Its courageous creative done the right way and in the spirit of the colonel. With plenty of gold to be won, while it might be our 50th, it’s certainly South Africa’s celebration,” concludes Kaul.

Notes:

For more information visit https://order.kfc.co.za/turns50
To view more on the campaign, collaborations and the behind-the-scenes content visit KFC turns 50 blog.

About KFC

KFC has been in South Africa for close to 50years and has around 951 restaurants across the country. The first KFC restaurant to open in South Africa was in 1971 in Orange Grove, Johannesburg. KFC’s Original Recipe® Chicken was first made by Colonel Harland Sanders in 1940 when he perfected his secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices at his restaurant in Kentucky. Today, KFC is the world's most popular chicken restaurant, still preparing our chicken with the Colonel’s secret recipe to his exact standards. Every KFC restaurant follows the same global processes and procedures to make sure that our customers get great tasting food, every time.

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