KFC New Zealand Assesses New Brand Platform with System1
For QSR brands, performance ads introducing products, promotions and limited-time offers and partnerships are essential for creating demand and driving new customer acquisition. Often, the creative centres on price to communicate value, with little consideration for showmanship features that support long-term brand building, like characters with agency, betweenness, dialogue and distinctive assets.
Following its recent appointment, creative agency Bastion Aotearoa sought to introduce a bold, flexible platform that KFC New Zealand could leverage consistently across the full marketing mix. Importantly, it would need to ignite desire and craving through emotional and cultural resonance, not simply price-led messaging.
Bastion created ‘Gonna Wanna,’ tapping into the split-second moment where craving takes over and suddenly, you’re ‘Gonna Wanna’ go to KFC. The platform leans into the notion that craving is a feeling that can’t be ignored and KFC is the only way to satisfy this desire.
“This is an exciting step forward for the brand. ‘Gonna Wanna’ captures the role KFC plays in people’s lives – it’s spontaneous, it’s emotional and it’s driven by real craving,” said Leanne Too, KFC marketing director.
“We wanted to create something unmistakably KFC – simple, confident, and built to stretch. ‘Gonna Wanna’ taps into that moment where logic goes out the window, and craving takes over,” said Owen Dowling, Chief Strategy Officer at Bastion.
To understand the commercial potential of its creative before launch, the KFC team engaged with System1, the Creative Effectiveness Platform. System1’s Test Your Ad platform is rooted in behavioural science because emotion is the best predictor of future behaviour.
The ad testing tool measures the type and intensity of emotional response to predict short-term sales potential (Spike Rating) and long-term brand-building potential (Star Rating), in addition to delivering a read on the strength of branding (Fluency Rating).
Bastion developed a series of vignettes featuring a consistent cast of Gen Z characters hanging out on a porch, a park bench and in a parking lot. Each is set against a bright ‘KFC red’ background with billboards and packaging further reinforcing the brand. With nods to the group chat and living at your parents’ place, they feel like authentic snippets of conversations between friends.
The campaign secured 3.8 Stars, 1.4 Stars above the average for New Zealand and impressive results for a performance ad. In the Test Your Ad report, Key Associations from viewers included ‘KFC treat’, ‘Keen to buy’, ‘Hungry’ and ‘Made me hungry’, signalling the creative is driving craving.
Among men, the ad achieved an ‘Exceptional’ 5.2 Stars, and in the 4-Star range for both the 18-24 and 35-54 age cohorts.
It particularly excels on Spike Rating, System1’s measure of short-term effects like store visits, app traffic and sales. In testing, the ad scored 1.34 or ‘Exceptional.’ This places the creative in the top 14% of all New Zealand ads on Spike Rating.
Of course, for advertisers to realize the potential of high-performing creative, viewers must connect the creative to the brand, rather than a competitor. On the brand recognition metric (Fluency), KFC scores incredibly well with 98% of viewers correctly identifying KFC after watching the ad.
The ads are featured across AV, social, OOH, radio, digital, and in-store. Compared to KFC’s previous Value initiative, the campaign doubled the brand’s sales contribution.
“In reframing our value messaging to address how we satisfy cravings, we wanted to drive an immediate and emotional reaction. Seeing the creative score so well on short-term potential was a real win. System1’s testing further reinforced our confidence in this new platform and its power to drive both short-term and long-term results as we stretch it further,” added Too.
“Given KFC New Zealand’s 18-24 target audience, we were particularly pleased that the creative scored 4.9 Stars and exceptional Spike and Fluency with this group. Test Your Ad provides key metrics by demographic, giving marketers confidence in advertising’s commercial potential, as well as rich qualitative insights to drive marketing excellence,” said Vanessa Cox, Senior Vice President, APAC, System1.
"In reframing our value messaging to address how we satisfy cravings, we wanted to drive an immediate and emotional reaction. Seeing the creative score so well on short-term potential was a real win. System1’s testing further reinforced our confidence in this new platform and its power to drive both short-term and long-term results as we stretch it further."
Leanne Too KFC marketing director
As World leaders in predicting and improving advertising effectiveness, Test Your Ad provides the most accurate/predictive metrics.