On 2 September, fast-food chain KFC announced that it had released a microdrama at the end of August. In fact, the first-party-made series had already amassed over 100 million views across platforms like Douyin, Xiaohongshu (RED), WeChat Channels and Bilibili.
Titled Reincarnation: Don’t Mess with the Foodie Empress, the microdrama tells the story of Zhou Mo (周莫, a play on word with “周末”, meaning weekend), an empress who after a fright while trying to get chicken, is reincarnated as a modern microdrama actress. It is a female-oriented feel-good series, with KFC placements and ads starting from episode 2 for taglines such as “have KFC for 30 RMB” (4.21 USD). With new episodes streaming every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, KFC is also launching weekend discounts so you can eat while you watch.
Interestingly, in July competitor McDonald’s launched its own microdrama series, also in the reincarnation genre called: Reincarnation: I Practice Magic at McDonald’s. The show is notable for it was made in an actual McDonald’s kitchen and restaurant. Other than international fast-food chains, Chinese tea brands Mixue Bingcheng and Cha Panda launched microdrama series of their own.
Microdrama marketing has entered a new phase. Other than sponsoring series with ads or product placements, the brands are now making first-party series entirely themed around the brands. C-beauty brands are the first to incorporate microdrama as a part of their marketing, making female-oriented series for their customer base. The beauty brand Kans has already accumulated over 5 billion views for their 5 series, selling over 1.5 million sets of the promoted products, topping various Douyin rankings. Brands and e-commerce platforms are all experimenting with the genre as a new way of marketing.
KFC has been ahead of the curve with marketing, and the microdrama is in a similar way to their “Crazy Thursday” which channels the mentality of young consumers. Either through memes or microdrama series. It is also interesting to see how food and beverage brands fare with microdramas, after the success of e-commerce and beauty/personal care sectors.
