KFC France jumps on buzz of Kanye West, Kim Kardashian visit

Dive Brief:

KFC France has created a social media post honoring Kanye West lyrics after the musician and his wife Kim Kardashian West visited a Paris location and tweeted about it, KFC's agency Sid Lee Paris shared with Marketing Dive.
On Thursday morning, a Kardashian fan account tweeted a video of the duo ordering food at a French KFC. Kardashian then posted a photo of Kanye eating the chicken inside their hotel room in Paris, verifying the visit.
In response, KFC France created a tweet of a bucket featuring Kanye's lyrics on the packaging: "Me and my girl split the buffet at KFC." After doing so, the fast-food chain erected a plaque in front of the St. Denis location to commemorate the celebrities' visit.

Dive Insight:

For the past several years, KFC has worked to position itself as a lifestyle brand that's relevant and engaging with the celebrity "it crowd," and this French social media blitz represents another example of these branding efforts.

It's unclear whether the visit from West and Kardashian was planned in conjunction with KFC or the brand jumped on the organic visit, as the company has previously worked to link itself with influencers in order to associate it as a popular place to eat.

Hey @kanyewest @KimKardashian we created a bucket just for you inspired by our favorite song of yours. For the next time you’ll come split the buffet at KFC Paris… pic.twitter.com/qy9ikhl7Aq
— KFC France (@KFCFrance) February 20, 2020

In May 2019, the chain created a Spotify playlist called Bucket Bangers that included tracks mentioning KFC. West's 2005 single "Touch the Sky" was featured on the playlist and is the song KFC quoted on the side of the chicken bucket in this latest French Twitter promotion. Last week, the company aimed to drum up buzz around New York Fashion Week with a line of fried chicken Crocs. The "avant-garde" Kentucky Fried Chicken X Crocs heeled bucket clog and a more standard clog are based on KFC's meal buckets and have received a flurry of engagement by fans on social media.

However, KFC's humorous influencer connections are also to be taken with a grain of salt. As part of its rotating Colonel Sanders campaign, the brand made a mock celebrity influencer out of CGI. The computer-generated Colonel Sanders took over the chain's account on Instagram to show off his fabulous lifestyle with posts tagged #secretrecipeforsuccess.