When an Australian postman took his Australia Post van on an unauthorised lunch run to KFC in Mayfield in New South Wales, he was fired. The man, who had worked at Australia Post for 36 years challenged his dismissal through the Fair Work Commission. He lost the case, but gained headlines.
However, Ogilvy Australia gave KFC even more headlines by picking up on the story with a fiendishly brilliant stunt.
KFC Australia sent a batch of “very urgent postcards” addressed to its own restaurants, giving posties an “official” reason to visit. When a postal worker delivered one of the postcards to a participating restaurant and handed it to a team member over the counter, it could be redeemed for a free meal. The Go Full Chicken On Us postcards were announced on social media with the statement, “To ensure future visits by postal workers are strictly ‘official business,’ KFC is immediately posting a bunch of very urgent postcards addressed to… ourselves. Consider it postage paid in chicken.”
The stunt also made its way into general news publications, such as 7News and News.com.au.
Ogilvy head of consumer PR and influence, James Curtis, stated, “When the postie story broke, it had all the ingredients of a moment KFC could genuinely add value to rather than just piggyback on. It wasn’t about forcing the brand into a news story for the sake of visibility. It was about finding an authentic angle that played into KFC’s long-standing reputation for having a laugh with its audience.
“The idea of turning the very thing that got someone in trouble into an ‘official excuse’ felt like a natural, cheeky extension of the story that Australians were already talking about, and gave the brand a reason to be part of that conversation rather than just commentating on it.
“It was low cost, high impact, and designed to travel quickly through the news cycle and social media while the story was still hot. Reactive earned work like this is so effective because it meets consumers where they already are, emotionally invested in a story, rather than asking them to engage with a brand message cold. When done well, it doesn’t feel forced, it feels like the brand is in on the joke with everyone else.”
Leave A Reply