KFC hands out chicken-scented scratch-and-sniff cards for Valentine's Day

Dive Brief:

Fast-food chain KFC is giving away fried chicken-scented cards for Valentine's Day to promote its two-person Chicken Share meal, according to a press release provided to Marketing Dive.
The scratch-and-sniff cards are available in four retro-inspired designs starting Feb. 12, each with the brand's mascot Colonel Sanders and a small patch that emits the aroma of the restaurant's iconic chicken recipe with 11 herbs and spices. Cheeky messages like "I fell in love the first moment I slaw you" and "You have the secret recipe to my heart" are featured on the limited-edition cards. The cards are being handed out free with the purchase of a $10 Chicken Share meal.
The chain also partnered with mobile app Tenor for GIFs featuring the brand's mascot Colonel Sanders alongside buckets of chicken with love-themed messages. The animated clips are available via Tenor's GIF Keyboard app and are also integrated into Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter.

Dive Insight:

The goofy marketers at KFC strike again. This Valentine's Day, the fast-food chain looks to leverage fun, kitschy cards to spur some brand buzz among loyal fans and drive conversation online, all while luring customers into stores on a holiday that's not likely a popular one for fast food chains in general.

That isn't stopping plenty of fast-food marketers from developing creative — if not quirky — love-themed promotions for Valentine's Day, giving consumers an alternative to the traditional flowers and boxes of chocolate. This year, Wingstop is offering a special hotline for "saucy" love tips along with a DIY kit to create a bouquet of wings. White Castle is continuing its years-long dinner date tradition this Feb. 14 by allowing diners to make reservations via OpenTable.

The fried chicken-scented cards are KFC's latest product marketing stunt aimed at creating unique experiences for fans. The integration with Tenor's GIF keyboard offers a splash of digital that could be a hit with millennials and other mobile messaging savants who are typically responsive to sharing humorous content, GIFs and emojis on social media, driving reach for KFC. About two-thirds of millennials said GIFs were better than words at communicating their thoughts and feelings, according to a Tenor-commissioned Harris Poll. The retro look and iconic imagery of Colonel Sanders and buckets of chicken, along with silly messages like "You're the cole to my slaw," make the GIFs highly shareable.

KFC is no stranger to nontraditional product marketing efforts over the years, from candles, bath bombs, sunscreen and edible "finger lickin'" nail polish — all chicken-scented, of course. The brand has leveraged its signature fried chicken scent in its marketing strategy over the past few years by adding it to a variety of unlikely items.

The scratch-and-sniff cards and valentine GIFs aren't KFC's first foray into Valentine's Day promotions. Last year, the fast-food brand created the ChickenGram, a heart-shaped box of chicken with original poems printed on the lids for the most loyal of crispy chicken fans.