Sid Lee takes Colonel Sanders from who? to hooray

Last weekend, Colonel Sanders arrived in France. Not the food – the famous fried chicken chain opened its first restaurant in the country back in 1991. Its creator.

For the first time, the KFC is incorporating the Colonel into local advertising, hoping to familiarise French people with the founder and his legendary recipe a little more.

26 years after the Colonel’s crispy fried chicken arrived in France, only 3% of French people know who he is. For over a quarter of a century, his trademark face has appeared on buckets but has never been a part of the brand’s communication. Until now.

Now Sid Lee Paris is making sure that France knows Colonel Sander’s name. The new brand platform kicked off with a film as big as the Colonel’s global reputation. The 90-second film, directed by La\Pac’s Jeff Low, spotlights his adventures and establishes his role in KFC, with the help of some very humorous hyperbole.

https://youtu.be/oAtFAt1xNxo

“Our hope is to make Colonel Sanders a real pop culture personality in France. It’s an incredible opportunity to be able to tell the story of such a persona,” explained Céline and Clément Mornet-Landa, creative directors at Sid Lee Paris.

“Our feeling is that the product needs to be at the heart of the discussion. Behind the history of Colonel Sanders, there’s the history of the recipe that we’ve always wanted to share with the French people,” Mehdi Benali, managing director at Sid Lee Paris, noted.

Colonel Sanders was given a welcome befitting any celebrity. There was:

an outdoor campaign to announce his arrival
a Twitter Uptime activation that posted a tweet every minute for the hour leading up to the film’s launch
an interview with pop culture site, Konbini
and a number of KFC employees were treated to an exclusive in-person introduction to the Colonel, who delivered a keynote speech.

The launch of Colonel Sanders is only the first chapter in a new history for the brand, a story that will continue throughout the year.

“More than an ad campaign, our objective is to tell a genuine story about Colonel Sanders and his recipe. And to set it up through a privileged exchange between the brand and French people,” commented Pascale Laborde, marketing director, KFC France.

Credits:

Agency: Sid Lee Paris
Chief Creative Officer: Sylvain Thirache
Creative Directors: Céline & Clément Mornet Landa
Copywriter: Simon Lamasa
Art Director: Sophie Dherbecourt

Agency Supervisors: Johan Delpuech, Mehdi Benali, Héloïse Marchal & Benoit Fernandes
Head of Strategy: Benoit Pellevoizin
Strategist: Patrice Zamy
Head of Production: Thomas Laget
Agency Producer: Marine Redon