If you have never heard of KFC’s “Crazy Thursday” bundle, then you are missing out on a lot of fun from one of China’s most entertaining marketing campaigns.
“Crazy Thursday” refers to KFC’s special offers (available only on Thursdays) which went viral due to a large number of content recreations on social media platforms. This was followed by 1.81 billion views and 4 million discussions under the topic #KFCCrazyThursday# on Weibo.
The special offer was first introduced in August 2018, mainly focusing on products such as burgers, and fried chicken with only 9.9 RMB ($1.55). Back then, even though the company invited several A-list celebrities to shoot a video commercial for the promotion, consumers didn’t show enough interest.
In 2020, the popularity of “Crazy Thursday” on the Internet was still not very high and people saw it as just “another marketing campaign”. It wasn’t until 2021 that there was a punchline on Weibo, saying “Why do you look so down? Do you know what day it is? It is Crazy Thursday”.
After a week, the sentence became a hit on social media, with many people talking about it and recreating the original punchline which attracted even more interest. As a result, sales on Thursdays increased tremendously due to this simple idea.
Promotion is a common strategy to stimulate consumption, but lots of promotions everywhere can overwhelm consumers. To maximise the effect of “the Thursday promotion”, KFC is trying hard to make theirs the most memorable.
By branding Thursdays and associating this day with fried chicken and burgers, together with its unique visual presentation of advertisements, KFC ensures that consumers will not forget this unique promotion anytime soon.
