Going long in the attention economy: How KFC used long-form video to win back 16-24 year olds

Lucian Trestler, Jack Colchester and Jack Foley

KFC, a fast food brand, used long-form video to win back 16-24 year olds globally with its YouTube video series 'Around the world in 99 gigs'.

Summary

This paper shows how planning informed KFC's decision to contradict the overwhelming industry drive towards short-form content, with a long-form, high-quality, episodic, video series, resulting in their most successful digital campaign to date.

Research identified that the low penetration amongst their most valuable age group, 16-24's, was being caused by negative perceptions of KFC on the key drivers of brand preference. As this demographic are increasingly shifting their attention (specifically their video consumption) online, we decided to address this issue primarily through online video. And to do so with an entertainment format that they would chooseto watch,...

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