All Hail Gravy: The Marketer Who Built Faith In Chicken

KFC ditched every convention and gave us: a mundane launderette with an eery kitchen sink feel, an AI minister and a pang of anxiety, a crowd of thumping dancers and a larger-than-life CGI chicken. And, in an ironic take on the nation’s postmodern angst, the words “Believe In Chicken” are writ in bold red letters.

The follow up, featuring a forest, a giant egg and the discovery of a magical lake of gravy, is equally grand and equally surreal.

Like much of Mother’s characteristic lateral thinking it is wonderfully wild, but the true genius is the message that KFC provides consistency – it’s a creative take on a beautifully simple insight, that a box of fried chicken and some humble gravy is comfortingly reliable in a chaotic and absurd world.

The mastermind is marketing director Kate Tipper who has led the team and the agency and helped keep momentum  for owner Yum! Brands (which owns KFC and Taco Bell).

Customers interacting with KFC online or through the app can't miss the message. A single click on the brand's UK website leads to the message “All Hail Gravy”, with a graphic that is dripping in the sauce.

The scale and consistency of the strategy's execution ­– from personalised targeting to an equally playful drinks campaign – make her this week’s marketer of the week.

“Not only is Kate a brilliant brand builder who is tuned into popular culture, she is a people first leader. She invests time in others to build such strong relationships across our marketing team and our agencies, really bringing people together. So she’s able to challenge the work in a way that people feel supported and motivated to bring their very best,” says KFC’s chief marketing officer Monica Silic.

Tipper joined KFC in 2019, after starting out on the Sainsbury’s graduate scheme before rising the ranks to lead e-commerce marketing at the retailer.

She then moved to Mondelez, where she spent over eight years, starting out as a junior brand manager and ending up as UK marketing manager of the giant Dairy Milk and Green & Blacks brands before her move to KFC.

Tasked with leading on mergers and acquisitions messaging in 2016, a time when Mondelez struck a deal to take over on Cadbury’s Fingers and Animals from Burton’s biscuits. Conveying the impact and rationale behind such deals may appear like a far cry from gravy rivers and chicken worship but precision and consistency are just as key.

Along with many of its fast-food competitors, KFC had to manage with declining customers and a value war amid the cost-of-living crisis.

For Silic, celebrating the brand’s core tenets despite the difficult circumstances has been key to navigating the market: “BELIEVE affirms the brands position as the icon of chicken. It’s our way of sharing our absolute chicken obsession while offering our audience something they can believe in, amidst an often chaotic or dull world.”

There is certainly increasing reason to BELIEVE in the chicken. In the UK, KFC announced six percent sales growth last year, up by five percentage points on 2023, and there's no doubt that Tipper's focus on clarity at every customer interaction point will help reinforce the fast food restaurant’s status in a tough category.