The Life of Colonel KI – The First Colonel to Conquer eSports

Challenge

Back in 2018, KFC created Colonel KI (KFC-AI) – KFC’s AI persona in-game for predicting League of Legend winners. The algorithm in the form of Colonel KI was capable of giving out real-time predictions on who would win a match based on game stats.

The AI predictor proved to be so highly accurate that fans went crazy for it, and it became League of Legends’ “Paul the Octopus” IP owned by KFC. Each year, gamers had come to expect more from the pioneer Colonel.

As COVID-19 hit, China’s eSports witnessed a massive boom, with an 83% YOY increase in gaming content watched (Twitch), spurred on by the pandemic forcing people to stay home. This only further energised KFC to win over gamers.

In 2020, as Season 10 of League of Legends approached, KFC knew it needed to transform itself into an organic stakeholder, and it sought to do this by upgrading Colonel KI from an AI persona into its official KOL of the eSports world and gamers’ loyal companion, creating the ultimate social schedule, as well as a host of deals to entice gamers and demonstrate value.

Then, in 2021, the World Championships of the globe’s No. 1 eSport, League of Legends, were relocated from China to Iceland just one month prior to its start due to COVID restrictions. Millions of Chinese fans’ interaction with the tournament and each other was suddenly limited to online. The move caused discord among fans of the four participating Chinese clubs, creating further challenges for KFC to appeal to a united eSports audience.

 

Strategy

In 2020, after first upgrading the Colonel’s look, KFC created the ultimate social agenda for the Colonel – normally reserved for A-list celebrities.

In 2021, to solve this and unite fans behind a unified win for China, KFC created Colonel KI Collector Cards in partnership with four of China’s leading League of Legend’s teams – the very first eSports and League of Legends collector cards in existence.

 

Execution

2020: 

Linking the Colonel’s content to KFC’s digital ecosystem to drive lifetime value consumers, KFC created limited-edition Colonel KI membership cards, targeted to gamers. Valid originally for 90 days, members could benefit from daily coupons, massive discounts and free delivery.

To make this card more appealing to gamers, KFC bet the benefit of membership on the success of Chinese national League of Legend’s team. So, when the Chinese National Team won the tournament, members went in the draw to win limited-edition Razor gaming hardware, as well as exclusive official League of Legends merchandise, ensuring fans celebrated the win together with the Colonel!

2021: 

During the League of Legends tournament, the Colonel’s cards were given away with each purchased KFC meal. Every card featured a team member from China’s top teams. All 28 card types were blindly mixed together, with limited edition hidden cards featuring the team’s pet mascots up for grabs to drive the frenzy.

Doing so, KFC tapped into the collective memory of collector cards from gamers’ childhoods, creating emotional value as a social currency while uniting the gamer community.

To promote the release, China’s top teams created content of the cards’ release.   eSports players, influencers and fans created videos of their unboxing experiences live in KFC stores. Furthermore, KFC organized offline card exchange events and world championship watch parties in stores, making KFC the go-to venue for the championships while also creating a place for Chinese fans to unite together and cheer for China!

With significantly less budget than competing sponsors of League of Legends, KFC successfully managed to upgrade Colonel KI into the tournament’s hottest and busiest KOL! As a result, KFC was able to reinforce its value with gamers, driving sales!

 

Results

In 2020, by tieing the benefits of the membership card to the tournament results, KFC remained top of mind among the gamer community while building long-term, habitual purchase habits.

KFC also partnered with one of China’s leading delivery groups, Meituan, to offer discount offers to gamers during the League of Legends tournament.

In 2021, the gamer community exploded with the release of the Colonel’s Cards. Overnight, videos appeared on social of the UGC unboxing videos, with gamers desperate to get their hands on the full set of the Colonel’s cards! In just three days, the Colonel’s cards sold out in numerous stores across the country.

Online, gamers generated 310 million topic views and 111,000 topic discussions of the Colonel’s cards, while the gamer’s unboxing videos generated 20x more UGC than any other sponsor – landing twice on Bilibili’s Hot chart!

As a result, KFC-related mentions increased 3x vs 2020, crowning KFC as the most mentioned brand by fans for yet another year – all thanks to its KFC-owned and branded eSports IP – Colonel KI!