Mid-February saw KFC Canada team up with Toronto Raptors star and brand ambassador Gary Trent Jr to design, open and promote its first ever winter basketball court in the country through an initiative called ‘Buckets Are Life’
Developed with the Narrative agency, KFC’s inaugural, regular size outdoor branded basketball court was designed to be suitable for use all through the harsh Canadian winter. Built beneath Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway and with stylized KFC chicken buckets mirroring NBA regulation-size buckets and nets. The ‘KFCourt’ is open every day and available for public reservation: each 45-minute sessions costs just $5 Canadian and the money will be donated to a KFC partner NGO ‘Jump Thru Hoops’.
Features of the KFCourt include:
- > Preheated basketballs on arrival
- > Rotating DJs on Fridays and Saturdays courtesy of LiveNation
- > A Pepsi-sponsored warming centre with heaters and refreshments
- > KFC samples on select days and an UberEats promo code for a future KFC order
- >Plus, to keep players ‘as crispy as a hot bucket of delicious fried chicken’, guests are also able to dress themselves in limited-edition custom T-shirts featuring the number 11 (in honour of favourite herbs and spices).
KFC’s ‘Buckets Are Life’ campaign spans Out of Home, regional TV, high-impact OLV, as well as partnerships with The Scarborough Shooting Stars, The Raptors Show on Sportsnet and BarDown on TikTok and The Score.
Plus the court is being promoted on Trent Jr and KFC Canada’s Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube channels.
The court’s comprehensive marketing campaign also includes a set of KFC promotional offers for game night, whilst at the launch event the locals were invited to drop by for a game against Raptors star Trent Jr.
“Canadians’ love for Finger Lickin’ Good buckets is matched only by their love for buckets on the basketball court,” said KFC Canada Director Of Marketing Azim Akhtar at the court opening. “That’s why we wanted to bring these two worlds together as only KFC can and create an epic winterized court that fuels Canadians’ growing passion for basketball.”
Comment
Basketball and fried chicken might seem like an odd couple, but, well, KFC is a brand that is all about buckets isn’t it.
This campaign rolled out while rival fast food giant McDonald’s was also activating its Toronto Raptors tie-up through the launch and promotion of a limited edition Pascal ‘Siakam Swirl McFlurry’.
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