KFC acting CMO labels Family Food Fight sponsorship ‘total disaster’, with brand preparing for end of free TV
Nine’s take on the reality cooking format, Family Food Fight, has been labelled a “total disaster” by KFC’s acting chief marketing officer, Annabel Fribence, who said the fast food brand didn’t get the reach it was hoping for by aligning with the program.
Speaking to the audience at Mumbrella’s Retail Marketing Summit, Fribence said KFC – one of the sponsors of Family Food Fight – has now halved its television budget.
Fribence: “It’s very much about preparing for the day free-to-air TV is potentially turned off”
“We have halved our TV budget, TV is still a very cost effective way to get reach and it’s a beautiful channel to drive emotion, but we all know it is getting more expensive and it’s getting harder and harder,” she said.
“We backed in Family Food Fight, total disaster, and you miss your reach, you need to make sure you roll your bets correctly – so really trying to figure out how to take ourselves off the drug of TV for the future. It’s very much about protecting that future growth and protecting our future sales so we can continue to drive sales.”
Family Food Fight premiered in late October last year and captured a metro audience of 614,000. Nine has since said even though the show didn’t get the numbers it was hoping for, the audience was extremely engaged and loyal to the program.
The acting CMO told the audience 90% of the brand’s media buy goes to the “retail engine” – the spots which are driving the sales results.
Fribence said the majority of what consumers are viewing is the retail work, referring to a brand campaign as a “moment in time that costs a bomb and is quickly forgotten”.
As a result of the decreased free-to-air television spend, Fribence said KFC has tried to figure out how to drive sales results through out-of-home, social media and by further understanding the role of radio.
“It’s very much about preparing for the day free-to-air TV is potentially turned off,” she added.
Abigail Dawson was Mumbrella's senior content journalist covering event content. She left Mumbrella to move into an agency role in 2020.
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Sounds like KFC need a 101 in media effectiveness.
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Their media agency would not want to hear that.
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One very smart executive, making incisive remarks.
But bad news for traditional television, which, sadly, looks like going the way of horse and buggy repair franchises.
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Brilliant. Love to see a marketer hold the media to account and help their media agency make change on it. Anything to reduce the complacency of the TV networks will be great.
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Will be watching to see KFC’s demise if they back out of TV.
Who is she kidding? KFC and their media agency took a punt and it didn’t work. So therefore TV is a fail?
No their media agency is the fail for not driving the guarantees from the media to underwrite the risk of backing a new programme.
Sorry, s
But she is no genius and this is no great insight…..let’s see how she goes on her ‘acting’ watch.
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Wonder what Ritson thinks of this one?
They just backed the wrong horse – newsflash, you can’t guarantee ratings, particularly for a new show!
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Everyone said exactly the same about AM radio when FM came along and here we are, nearly 50 years later, and AM is back in front. Meanwhile, Channel 9 just recorded a 50% increase in profit over 2016 and right now Married At First Sight is getting unbelievable ratings so 2018 could see them do even better.
It seems like fanciful thinking that FTA is going anywhere. There will always be a place for the nightly news, live sport, game shows and reality TV and FTA is the perfect medium for all that stuff. Again, look at Ch. 9 – they have pretty much given up on the US dramas and films that once made up the bulk of their evening schedules. Like AM radio, they have adapted to a changing landscape and found the niches that work better for them than their competitors. They’ll be around for a long while yet.
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What complacency? The networks are working harder than ever to stay ahead of the curve. Their on-line presence is growing massively and seems to be quite effective, giving them greater reach overall than ever.
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wonder if 9 offered a deal with the Cricket? Surely the audience slow downs of other cooking shows would have suggested new cooking show was only cluttering an already very tired format.
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“It’s very much about preparing for the day free-to-air TV is potentially turned off,” she added.
This will be a long way down the track. While they may decrease their actual TV buys, I’m sure their sporting sponsorships that live on FTA probably won change.
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Truer words have never been spoken – exciting to see a CMO calling it how it is.
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Exactly – I’m no marketing guru BUT why would a fast food take away product sponsor a home cooking show ?? doesnt seem well thought out
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Its a crap product – smells alright, tastes awful
NO TV will change that lol
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Its a shame you executives have disconnected from your market – the low income people who cant afford subscription TV, or understand Game of Thrones and hope for 15 seconds of fame on a reality show ARE the people who eat KFC !
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Hmmm….looks like the “acting CMO” needs some lessons in getting a message across with a level of empathy and diplomacy. Also, looks like Mumbrella needs a lesson in publishing all feedback comments (which the selectively filter – depending on client!)
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Have you seen a presentation from a TV sales department recently? Inspiring it is not.
I’d like to see the maths on the claim that they have greater reach overall than ever. They used to be able to average a 1.9M on a Tuesday night in metro for “Location, Location”. I’m doubtful that the combined FTA and online audiences for the biggest shows on air at the moment hit that.
I’m also not sure that the TV networks want to be compared to AM radio as a success story. The demo that it is nailing is not a profitable one, or one that will frankly be around in a few years.
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Sadly you don’t know what the difference between reach and audience is.
I sure hope you don’t work in media.
I’ll give you a tip. To be counted in the digital Monthly Unique Audience if you visit a website or use an app for just 1 second in a month they count you in. Yep, just 1 second of the 2.5m seconds in a month are you’re in. In TV if you watch half a programme (e.g. 30 minutes of a 60 minute programme) they only count you as half a viewer. No wonder Netflix launched with House of Cards!
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Family Food Fight was destined to be a dog of a property. Shame on KFC for believing otherwise. Yikes!
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