KFC is reviewing its media planning and buying account this month. Our data team decided to look into the customer emotion driven by the brand. KFC is known for their bold advertising campaigns who remembers the chicken vs the turkey last Christmas and their current “What the cluck?” campaign?
Our team of analysts analysed over 30,000 mentions of KFC on social media between May 2019 to present. The data was analysed for 24 emotions using our emotion AI platform Emotics.
The Adorescore metric is used to assess the emotional intensity of the data on a scale of -100 to 100. The higher the score the more positive the conversation.
Key Insights
- High engagement from bucket hat competition: 48 Adorescore
- Disappointment regarding the loss of Supercharger sauce: -5 Adorscore
- Dislike of new chip introduction: -43 Adorescore
- Confusion around the vegan burger trial: -2 Adorescore
Bucket hat competition
Driving 24% more joy than general mentions
KFC’s social media posts often garner high engagement from fans. Their post offering fans the chance to win a “KFC” bucket in hat form was no different. This campaign was well timed around festival season driving high interest and joy amongst mentions.
“@KFC_UKI I am a bucket hat champion, and I come with experience endorsing meat products. I am the one for KFC #PickShane https://t.co/O0gkjLyzmB”
“@KFC_UKI Who doesn’t want to do the gardening in a bucket hat #HipsterChickenGardener”
“@KFC_UKI Imagine going KFC with all of your mates and you turn up in a KFC bucket hat you would look like an absolute legend. https://t.co/GHpengPaH7”
Supercharger sauce
Driving 113% more surprise than general mentions
Sadness and grief are expressed by people who lamented the loss of the supercharger sauce. However, KFC responded just in time by releasing a 1-litre bottle of it for £4 this summer, and the emotion among customers quickly switched to ecstasy and joy.
“@KFC_UKI I literally hate eating KFC without supercharger sauce, I was going to spend £15 tonight but without the supercharger sauce, I had to walk out…when will you be getting it as a dip? 😓”
“QT @KFC_UKI: Yessssss it’s been years I’ve missed you my friend; Supercharger is coming. It’s bottled, bigger than ever and available in restaurants. Like ❤️ and we’ll send you reminders to get your hands on one. #Supercharger ⚡ https://t.co/Ow1LofJHjN”
New chips
Driving 87% more anger and 113% more disgust than general mentions
While many customers had negative reviews about KFC’s old fries, it seems that the new fries aren’t going down much better. Disgust and sadness is expressed throughout mentions of KFC’s move to their new fries.
“@RyanFreeman84 @KFC_UKI New fries are awful. Puts me off getting KFC. McDonalds do the best fries”
“@KFC_UKI you’ve gone from stingy mediocre fries to horrible bitter tasting skin on fries 🙁 learn to peel potatoes please. #mealruined”
Vegan burger trial
Driving 4% more trust than mentions of new fries
KFC’s attempts to appeal to the ever-increasing number of vegetarians and vegans in the UK arrived in a few locations this summer to a mixed response. While many who tried the burger loved the taste and the price point and expressed ecstasy and joy, others expressed anger and loathing that the fast-food chicken restaurant, who have animal welfare problems in the past, were catering to vegans. Limited availability of the burger, as well as the restaurant’s reputation for animal welfare were causing disgust among vegans.
“@cpaulgrainger @PETAUK @KFC_UKI Exactly this! How many millions of Chickens slaughtered each year by KFC? They sell one vegan burger and they are PETA’s new Hero! #idontrhinkso”
“QT @SkyNews: ahhh yes, it should be named KFV then. the colonel will be turning in his grave ffs! #vegan ; KFC is releasing a vegan burger: When and where is it available and what it’s made from? https://t.co/An0g1roX3X”
That’s just a glimpse of the insights available through emotion analysis of customer data.
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