KFC Australia 'The Home Cricket Ground (#TheHCG)' Back For More Fan Rituals

KFC has revived its authentic everyman ‘Home Cricket Ground’ initiative – activating its partnership with Cricket Australia – with a multi-platform campaign (spanning TV, social and even Shazam) that celebrates Australian fans’ at-home cricket rituals.

To leverage the new 2015/16 summer cricket season, the campaign is built on the idea that while the MCG holds 100,000 fans and the SCG 46,000, the Home Cricket Ground in Australia has a 23.9 million capacity and is therefore where most supporters enjoy their cricket.

Created with agency Ogilvy Sydney, the initiative sees KFC celebrate the ‘HCG’ as the perfect place to ‘be yourself’ and it aims to encourage all Aussie cricket lovers to share their own ‘at home’ cricket habits, traditions, traits and superstitions by using the hashtag #thehcg

The work kicked off in late November with a new commercial that sees Australian sports fans of all ages going through their favourite rituals (and eating KFC).

The spot comes in both a 45-second version,

and a 30-second cut down.

The TV ads, as well as other campaign content, encourages fans to show what they get up to when they are supporting Australia at home (with the hashtag #thehcg).

As well as the core commercial, there are two further product-led TVCs promoting the ‘Family Feast’ and the ‘Tower Stacker Burger’ (and there are plans for further product spots in late December).

The TV work dovetails with a KFC partnership with Australia’s Channel 9 and Channel 10.

In addition to supporting outdoor, digital and radio ads, the campaign also includes in-store and POS touch points, PR strands, in-ground/at-stadium initiatives.

The campaign also runs across KFC’s social channels and also includes a trivia competition hosted on Cricket Australia’s live app.

I just took part in the KFC trivia competition in #theHCG. To play download the Cricket Australia Live App or visit https://t.co/xy6HeJXbOe

— Riley H-C (@JedHodgson) November 29, 2015

Home Cricket Ground also sees the fast food outlet become the first to partner with listening app Shazam globally across on-pack and media touchpoints.

A further strand of the initiative sees KFC Australia, in association with Cricket Australia, create a parallel series of cricketers’ own Home Cricket Ground stories – starring several of Australia’s top players including Steve Smith, George Bailey, Mitchell Starc, Shaun Marsh and David Warner.

These clips see players reminisce about their own time spent within their HCG growing up.

These are running both on digital video, including KFC’s YouTube channel (such as this David Warner spot),

posted across KFC social channels (such as Twitter) and aired exclusively on Channel 9 through the Commonwealth Bank Test Series against New Zealand and West Indies.

KFC will also activate the campaign through the summer at all KFC Big Bash League and KFC International T20s games – working with Channel 10 to broadcast all the action live.

As well as Ogilvy Sydney’s creative and social input, the campaign also saw Mediacom handle media, Edelman run the PR work and Ensemble handle branded entertainment.

The teams working for KFC marketing directors Angela Richards and Sally Spriggs and marketing manager Nora-Kate O’Connell were led by Ogilvy Sydney where the unit was helmed by creative group head Shaun Branagan and included copywriter Chris Ching, art director Kate Shearer, business director Leigh Bignell, senior account director Damien Pashby, account director Kate Smith, account managers Anna Michael and Madelin Robertson.

The social team at Social@Ogilvy included head of social Brie Stewart, social media manager Annie Chapman.

Production was run through One20 Sydney with director Jason Wingrove, producer Alan Robinson, head of TV production Rob Spencer and agency producer Amanda Bennie.

The PR work was run by Edelman Australia director Jo Osorio, account director Matt Ellenby and account manager Harrie Jack.

The branded entertainment team at Ensemble included chief executive officer Justin Ricketts, events and activation director Gemma Ni Maoltuile and account manager Zara Speke.

MediaCom’s unit included business lead Adele Burke, group director (activations & investment) Adriana Zaknic and manager (activations & investment) Christina Cagorski.

In store merchandising design was handled by Intoto where the account director was Lisa Mitchell.

‘Cricket’s our national game. It’s synonymous with summer and KFC is part of that summer ritual. Most Aussies watch cricket at home – hence our idea of the Home Cricket Ground, or HCG,’ explains Ogilvy Sydney’s creative head Shaun Branagan.

‘Not only is the HCG much bigger than the MCG or SCG, it’s the one place where you can do what you want, be yourself and, of course, enjoy some KFC.’

‘For almost 15 years KFC has been supporting and celebrating cricket in Australia. We’re thrilled to be celebrating Australians’ HCGs and rituals, activities and fun that happens across the country. We see the HCG as a place where all cricket fans are free to be their true selves and we can’t wait to help deliver this with a number of new initiatives and KFC firsts,’ adds KFC Austraalia CMO Nikki Lawson.

‘For the past five years, the KFC T20 Big Bash League has become synonymous with Aussie summer bringing energy and excitement to HCGs around the country. With even more stars recently confirmed from Australia and across the world, the 2015-16 season is set to be the biggest and best yet. We’re so excited for the league kicking off in January.’

Comment

KFC is a Cricket Australia ‘Gold Partner’ and its relationship with the team dates back to 2003 when it became the official Fast Food Restaurant of Cricket Australia.

It also holds the naming rights to the KFC T20 International and T20 Big Bash League.

This year’s campaign builds on the previous 2014/15 initiative that initially introduced ‘the HCG’ concept based around reinforcing the idea that for years Aussie cricket fans have enjoyed watching the cricket at home on the TV (with a bucket of KFC).

The original campaign was deeply integrated across TV spots, network partnership, a microsite, social media (#HCG), game sponsorship and innovative outdoor work and experiential elements.

This also included a prize giveaway to equip fans to create the perfect Home Cricket Ground.

Similar to the 2015/116 edition, there were also several product-specific strands – such as a move to match-up to traditional sports stadium food with the launch of a new KFC chicken and gravy pie labelled as ‘perfect for #theHCG’.

Again, fans were encouraged to post images of their own Home Cricket Ground lounge set-up to enter a competition to win a corporate box at the cricket that was fully furnished as a lounge room.

There were even an outdoor tram stop installation designed as an interactive lounge room for the cricket – complete with couch/sofa, cricket trophies, photo frames, a TV, a working plug-in to KFC’s own summer FM radio station and. Of course, a bucket of KFC.

KFC marketing boss Nikki Lawson admitted that the campaign achieved a form of ‘accidental authenticity’.

‘For almost 15 years KFC has been supporting and celebrating cricket in Australia. We’re thrilled to be celebrating Australians’ HCGs and rituals, activities and fun that happens across the country. We see the HCG as a place where all cricket fans are free to be their true selves and we can’t wait to help deliver this with a number of new initiatives and KFC firsts,’ Lawson explains.

‘For the past five years, the KFC T20 Big Bash League has become synonymous with Aussie summer bringing energy and excitement to HCGs around the country. With even more stars recently confirmed from Australia and across the world, the 2015-16 season is set to be the biggest and best yet. We’re so excited for the league kicking off in January.’

Links

The HCG Campaign Hub:

https://www.thehcg.com.au

KFC Australia YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/KFCAustralia

KFC Australia Twitter:

https://twitter.com/KFCAustralia

@KFCAustralia

#theHCG

KFC Australia Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/KFC.uk/?brand_redir=110233818125

KFC Australia Google+: