Russian KFCs Transformed into Movie Studios

KFC is the first brand in Russia to invite customers to star in a TVC, thanks to a movie-inspired experiential campaign by Perfect Fools, the international creative studio.

For the launch of its new Bacon iTwister, KFC restaurants in Moscow and St Petersburg will be transformed into film studios with the installation of a fully-automated, instant movie-making machine called the “MovieMatic”.

The MovieMatic is programmed to light, direct, shoot, edit and post process a 45-second mini-feature that is pushed to YouTube. 

After the “Action” button is hit a classic movie countdown launches a teaser of how the customer could “Be a Star”.  The pressure is on for the actor to deliver four scenes in quick succession, prompted prior to each take by the virtual director’s instructions.

The script calls for customer’s to get inspired and turn their restaurant into a discotech.  Scene one invites the would-be star to take an Oscar-winning bite on an iTwister.  Scene two delivers a Eureka moment where the protagonist is hit by an idea for scene three’s disco setting.  The finale is a crescendo of crazy dancing followed by the end credits. 

Once uploaded to YouTube a receipt is printed with the URL and a reminder to watch their creation, share and invite friends to vote.  An iframe website embedded in KFC’s YouTube page curates the videos into those with most votes, most popular and recently added.

A panel of judges will select the best video that will be shown on Russian TV.

Inspired by classic cine cameras and original Sony Walkmans, the retro feel MovieMatic is built by Perfect Fools.  The machine is packed with technology including: professional photography lights, two Canon 5D Mark III cameras, computers with bespoke software, storage drives, wifi router and phidgets for the control buttons, plus smaller light emitting gadgets and microphones.

Tony Högqvist, creative partner at Perfect Fools, said: “KFC is giving customers the tools and inspiration to be one click away from TV stardom in Russia. The challenge of who to appear on TV in the Bacon iTwister commercial is solved by the MovieMatic machine.  Using our instant movie-making system every customer can share their natural quirkiness and be an iTwister hero.”

Piotr Rozanski, marketing director YUM! Brands Russia (KFC, Pizza Hut), said: “KFC is the first brand in Russia to star a customer in a TV campaign. The aim is to captivate, inspire customers generate lots of brilliant videos showing-off their acting and dancing skills, then get them involved in a popularity contest to make them a hero across Russia.”

The MovieMatic will sit for two weeks in Moscow from 29 January and two weeks in St Petersburg from 19 February.  Customers get five days after their commercial is published to generate as many votes as possible.  The TVC starring the winning video will be broadcast in Russia from 31 March.

Check out the hopefuls here.

ECD: Tony Högqvist

Creative Director: Klas Lusth

Producer: Amit Raab, Guido Van Den Meersche

Art Director: Karl Nord

Designer: Erik Nilsson

Technical Director: Bjorn Kummeneje

Developer: Mikael Palm

Developer: Mathias Adolfsson

Developer: Michael Lindfors

Client Lead: Patrick Gardner, Anna Lindequist

Partner Agency: Hungry Boys