Brief:
- KFC partnered with Lifetime on an initial mini-movie starring Mario Lopez as brand name mascot Colonel Harland Sanders, according to a news release.
- “A Recipe For Seduction” premieres Dec. 13 at noon ET and follows the kind of a normal Lifetime Original Motion picture, appealing suspense, love, and the potential for “fowl” play, per the release. The 15-minute short-timed around the vacations represents KFC’s very first custom piece of mid-form top quality content with Lifetime.
- KFC is using the celebration to promote a partnership with Uber Eats where users can get 6 totally free additional crispy chicken tenders with a purchase of $20 or more. The shipment app promo demonstrates how the Yum Brands chain is angling to link an enthusiastic material play to commerce initiatives that are increasingly crucial for its company during the pandemic.
Insight:
KFC clearly sees a consumer appetite for video content that doesn’t take itself too seriously as the pandemic paints an otherwise grim photo around the vacations. The trailer for “A Recipe For Seduction” teases a story swarming with examples that are likely familiar to Lifetime Original Film fans, including a plot focused on steamy love affairs and scheming family members– albeit with a larger concentrate on fried chicken.
The dining establishment chain is also continuing its custom of putting celebs in the function of mascot Col. Sanders, here tapping Mario Lopez, who just recently starred in Lifetime’s Christmas love “Feliz NaviDAD.” Familiarity with the star could attract appeal with audiences who might otherwise be careful to devote their time to a top-quality short film. A “Feliz NaviDAD” repetition will play after “A Dish For Seduction” premieres.
Life Time Original Movies have established an intense cult following for many years, becoming cherished among viewers for their guilty-pleasure qualities. “A Recipe For Seduction” comes as part of the A+E network’s popular It’s A Terrific Lifetime slate of seasonal programming, and will reside on Lifetime’s apps and other videos on-demand platforms following its direct TV launching Sunday.
The co-production provides another signal that online marketers are getting more ambitious with their content strategies, recognizing that customers are streaming video in higher numbers and growing averse to conventional advertisements. Huggies, the diaper brand owned by Kimberly-Clark, recently dealt with the publisher Frightening Mommy on a Hulu streaming series designed off the late-night talk program format. “Up Early Tonight,” which runs four 20-minute episodes and caters to brand-new mothers maintained by their kids, rolls out on the platform on Dec. 17.
For KFC, the content play-acts as a method to raise brand awareness around an uncommon vacation duration and highlight its partnership with Uber Consumes. Delivery channels have become crucial for restaurants, which now face extra constraints on dine-in choices as COVID-19 cases reach brand-new records in the U.S. KFC, like fellow Yum Brands chain Taco Bell, has begun to explore store ideas that better accommodate mobile orders and contactless pickup.
While “A Dish For Seduction” is noteworthy for its aspiration, its tone aligns with past KFC campaigns mainly targeted at an audience of working mothers. As part of its Mother’s Day promotion in 2017, the brand name produced a bona fide romance novella featuring a fictionalized, hunkier version of Col. Sanders. “Tender Wings of Desire” ran 96 pages and followed a comparable plot to “A Recipe For Seduction,” detailing the story of a female who breaks from custom and order to pursue an affair with Sanders. KFC in 2015 also developed a dating sim entitled I Love You, Colonel Sanders! that replicated a design of a video game popular in Japan.
