Viewer Verdict – KFC & NRL

In May 2018 NRL sponsor KFC challenged fans to beat the video referee in real-time with an empowering initiative called ‘Viewer Verdict’ which sought to drive downloads of the KFC app.

Territory: Australia

Agency: Ogilvy Sydney

Objectives

In the middle of the 2018 NRL season – which ran from March through to September – KFC tasked agency Ogilvy Sydney to leverage its NRL sponsorship rights to drive downloads of the fast food brand’s app.

Activation

The agency’s solution, ‘Viewer Verdict’, was based on the question whether NRL fans think they can do a better job than the video ref and, for those who do, KFC challenged them to prove it.

To maximise heightened NRL interest the initiative ran during live broadcasts of NRL matches from Round 10 of the competitions onwards when fans were incentivised in real-time to prove they can do better than the video referee as a reason to download and use the KFC app.

Participation in the branded game play was simple: with live API feeds from the official broadcast bunker, fans watching a live game can decide ‘Try / No Try’ during the time the official decision is pending.

The game turned those action-free seconds before the video ref’s decision into a gamified fan experience where supporters could act as mini video referees by reacting to the replays faster than the official.

Thus empowering them to be immersed in their favourite sport and win prize while taking part as every verdict on the app was an automatic entry into a competition to win an $80,000 prize and a host of other smaller prizes (eg match tickets, KFC vouchers and State Of Origin experiences) with 20+ winners every week.

It could be played not only on the KFC app, but also through Facebook and online and the mechanic used Facebook logins to add user details.

“Video referee decisions have been causing arguments since they were introduced in the late ’90s,” said Shaun Branagan, Group Creative Director, Ogilvy Sydney. “We wanted to give fans a taste of how tough the job of the video ref really is. Viewer Verdict does exactly this plus it gives fans something fun to do in the dead time while waiting for the official NRL decision.”

Angela Richards, KFC Chief Marketing Officer, added: “We know KFC lovers are sports mad and we wanted to reach NRL fans who love our brand and reward them for their loyalty.  KFC Viewer Verdict is the perfect way to empower KFC lovers to engage in their love of NRL and have some fun while doing it.  We look forward to rolling out Viewer Verdict beyond this NRL season.”

The campaign was supported by paid media and owned channels including KFC’s website and its Facebook page (which had more than 50.5m followers when the campaign launched), eDM, KFC App, as well as on the NRL website and app.

Plus there was also a broadcast integration through Fox Sport which included a live broadcast graphic which pulled live stats from ‘Viewer Verdict’ during analyst Matty Johns’ segment.

The initiative was created for KFC by a team from creative agency Ogilvy Sydney which included Senior Account Manager (Digital) Emilie Ammann, Managing Partner Michelle Holland, Account Manager Jordana Smith, Senior Art Director Gareth Barlow, Technical Director Dan Adijan, Head Of Strategy Ryan O’Connell and Group Creative Director Shaun Branagan.

The media agency was Mediacom.

Outcome

The campaign resulted in increased downloads and usage of the KFC app.

Within a month of its launch, KFC Viewer Verdict had driven more than 10,800 app sign-ups and a total of over 13,400 fan verdicts across three rounds of matches.

While its hero promotional video notched up 219,000 views on Facebook (with 1000 likes, 95 comments and 37 shares) since it was posted on 21 May 2018.