We may have made fun of it at the time, but KFC’s sponsorship of the final episodes of Battlestar Galactica was successful enough to convince a lot of you that Colonel Sanders wasn’t as bad as you thought. Frakking mind-control.
https://gizmodo.com/when-kfc-makes-frak-jokes-we-all-win-5141402
Studies show that the KFC/BSG teaming was much more successful than normal advertising, both for the chicken shack and the show: Brand recall for the “hybrid branding” spots was at 103% of the norm, with KFC scoring 82% likability as a result, while Galactica’s audience proved 29% more loyal as a result. It gets weirder; of the BSG fans who participated in the KFC-sponsored online activities like the “Hear The Fans” feedback forum or “Cheer The Fans”‘ embeddable video clips found themselves 23% more likely to eat at KFC as a result of the sponsorship. SciFi’s VP of strategic marketing, Shari Weisenberg, is happy with the results of the sponsorship:
It was a good match… Battlestar Galactica has a deep, loyal fan base, which we know would engage both online and on-air. KFC saw it as a means to get new customers.
While SciFi can’t point to specific KFC sales figures, they know that over 100,000 KFC coupons were downloaded during the promotion with “intent to buy.” I wonder if this means we’ll see more of this kind of crossmarketing in future on the soon-to-be SyFy, and less awkward deodorant plotlines in our favorite shows.
https://gizmodo.com/scifi-channel-sells-out-eureka-5032214
Sci Fi’s ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Promotion Scored For KFC [Multichannel]
