KFC

Mother’s Day: Kentucky Fried Buckquet

A beautifully arranged KFC Sides Lovers Meal with a Fried Chicken Buckquet and mac and cheese on a red background.

(  Services  )

  • Customer Experience

Kentucky Fried Buckquet — A DIY arrangement that combines the two things Mom really wants, flowers and fried chicken.

With Mother’s Day being a major holiday for fast food brand, KFC, our long-time client came to us looking for support and direction on their biggest campaign of the year.

In two months time, the team at BASIC/DEPT® successfully sold a unique idea to KFC and their franchisees, sourced production partners, and designed accompanying collateral. Despite the operational complexities and limitations we quickly ran into, we ensured that this idea was brought to life through the KFC brand lens, and ultimately drove sales and awareness on their biggest day yet.

KFC doesn’t do anything that doesn’t feel like KFC. From time to time they may play up certain brand moments while downplaying others, but nothing ever feels inauthentic or off brand. For this campaign, we knew we had to play up the lighthearted, irreverent voice of KFC, while still making the moment about Mom.

We started with an intense ideation process grounded in a strategic approach, backed by audience insights—while considering what could be done in the next two months. Eventually, our decision was narrowed to the Kentucky Fried Buckquet and the work started. An internal connection landed us with Pro Flowers, and then the perfect DIY Mother’s Day gift and meal started to unfold.

A screenshot of the KFC website promoting a Mother's Day Buckquet Special with fried chicken, fries, and a chicken bouquet.

This year, Moms are the mains, not the sides

From a brand perspective, we felt it was time to move away from KFC’s historical Colonel gimmick and shift the focus back on Mom. So we considered what means most to mom and ultimately, how do we make this feel personal?

Cue the DIY model. At the end of the day, Mom wants to know you put some thought into her gift—and maybe handle dinner. After identifying a realistic production within strict operational constraints, we landed on the Kentucky Fried Buckquet.

Collage showing the preparation and presentation of the KFC Fried Chicken Buckquet with roses.
“

I love it, I absolutely love that. I love that. I love that so much. I love it. I absolut — can we see it one more time. I just love it.


”

James Corden,
The Late Late Show with James Corden

Introducing the Kentucky Fried Buckquet kit.

Throughout the process our team provided art direction for the campaign and designed all accompanying collateral and brand moments that came with the kit, while the team at Edelman executed the photoshoot.

Collage showing the KFC Buckquet gift packaging and the preparation of the roses in a vase.
Two-panel collage showing a hand preparing the KFC Buckquet by skewering fried chicken and arranging it with roses in a vase.
Two-panel image showing a hand presenting a Mother's Day card next to the KFC Buckquet, and a person holding the finished chicken and rose bouquet.

Crafting a simple user journey

A huge consideration was not only how to sell it, but how to streamline it. Our team created CRM emails that announced the campaign and linked consumers to purchase the Kentucky Fried Buckquet kit on the promotion’s PDP. From there, they just had to place an order for that world-famous fried chicken to receive a promo code for a free Pro Flowers delivery, and get to arranging.

Mobile phone screenshots showing a KFC Mother's Day notification and a "Last Chance" promotion for the Buckquet.

Results

KFC saw their strongest digital Mother’s Day ever, selling out of the Buckquets in under 9 hours.

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