The Breakdown
KFC UK & Ireland · Believe in Chicken: the 30-minute game show
KFC made a 30-minute TV show. Is that still advertising?
Instead of a 30-second ad, KFC UK & Ireland put 30 real superfans in a half-hour game show. It's a big bet on long-form entertainment. Here's what to watch.
The TL;DR (too long; didn't read)
- It's the latest chapter of KFC's “Believe in Chicken” platform.
- Real fans, not actors: more than 50,000 people applied (Adweek).
- No performance data has been published yet, so this is a test worth following.
01
From interrupting to being chosen
A normal ad interrupts something people chose to watch. A 30-minute show asks to be the thing they chose. That's a much higher bar, and a much bigger prize if it clears it.
KFC's CMO (chief marketing officer) told Adweek they hadn't ‘rented someone else's audience’, because the fans are the stars. That's the core idea: turn your most passionate customers into the content.
02
Why superfans?
Superfans are credible and entertaining, and they bring their own audiences. But brands grow mostly through light buyers (see the theory below), so the show has to entertain people who aren't obsessed with KFC too.
The test: would a casual viewer who only buys KFC twice a year stay for 30 minutes?
03
What success would look like
Viewership, completion rate, social clips and search for ‘KFC game show’ would be early signals. Long term, the question is whether it builds brand memories that lead to more visits.
Until KFC or a publication shares results, treat it as a strategy to watch, not a proven win.
Read the original reporting
- KFC Superfans Prove Their Devotion to Chicken in 30-Minute Game Show ↗
Adweek · 30 Sept 2026
- ‘Stepping beyond traditional advertising’: KFC on launching its own game show ↗
Marketing Week · 30 Sept 2026
The theory bit
The academic ideas that explain what's going on, with the full reference for your assignments.
Uses & gratifications
Audiences actively choose media to satisfy needs: entertainment, information, identity, social connection. Media that meets a real need earns attention rather than interrupting.
Here: A game show meets the entertainment need directly, so people choose it rather than skip it.
Katz, E., Blumler, J. G. & Gurevitch, M. (1973). Uses and Gratifications Research. Public Opinion Quarterly, 37(4).
The long and the short of it
Short-term activation (offers, direct response) drives quick sales spikes; long-term brand building (broad-reach, emotional work) drives lasting growth. Their IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) analysis suggests roughly a 60:40 brand-to-activation budget split as a starting point.
Here: Long-form, emotional, fame-building work is a long-term brand play, so don't judge it on next-week sales.
Binet, L. & Field, P. (2013). The Long and the Short of It. IPA.
Mental & physical availability
Brands grow mainly by being easy to think of (mental availability) and easy to buy (physical availability) for as many category buyers as possible, not by deepening loyalty among a few.
Here: The risk: superfans are a small group. The show must also reach light buyers to grow the brand.
Sharp, B. (2010). How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don't Know. Oxford University Press.
Over to you
No right answers here. These are to get you thinking. Jot your ideas down or chat them through.
- 1
Would you watch 30 minutes of a brand's show? What would make you stay?
Need a nudge?
Think about stakes, characters, humour.
- 2
What's the risk of building a campaign around superfans?
Need a nudge?
Who actually drives most of a big brand's sales?
- 3
How would you make the show travel beyond TV?
Need a nudge?
Clips, creators, memes, live voting…
Optional · about 10 minutes
Your mini task
In 60–120 words: pitch a long-form entertainment format for a brand you like. Explain who it's for, why people would choose to watch it, and how you'd judge whether it worked.