Subliminal Advertising Doesn’t Garner More Eyeballs
Disney’s ABC Network refused to air it on the grounds that the ad was subliminal advertising. With this controversy more free publicity ensued, of course. The spot apparently became a media darling. Every one was supposedly talking about it. And KFC was patting itself on the back. According to the article, KFC claims that roughly 103,000 people claimed the “Buffalo Snacker” coupons by visiting the KFC website and entering the secret code, and the promotion accounted for a noticeable surge in overall traffic to the KFC website. This is the view presented by the article; a view where old companies become new media darlings as they reconnect with, and expand upon their audience. But the stark reality of the promotion is quite another tale.
The basics are still true. KFC ran this ad, and one single frame of the ad contained a secret code which could be redeemed for âÂ?¦a $1 KFC Gift Certificate. (Any tax being the consumer’s responsibility.) It is important to note the difference between the actually of what happened and the fantasy of what KFC (and by inference the Wall Street Journal) think happen here. Disney need not have worried. First off, it only took one person viewing this ad for most (if not all) of the 103,000 code claims to be requested. That is not to say that people did not view the ad; certainly people saw it. But it was absolutely unnecessary to see the ad to claim the prize. In fact, the only thing one needed to claim the prize was the code – it wasn’t even required for one to know from where the code arose. The internet, as is its way, completely invalidated KFC’s marketing schema. The internet also, it seems, inflated KFC’s sense of success.
Within a short time of the commercials initial airing, the secret code, gleaned from the ad by a single viewer, was posted online, and replicated on numerous “freebie forums.” (By the way, so-called Freebie Forums are online bulletin boards specifically devoted to getting free items for little or no work. The less work involved the better!) Within a few days of these postings the offer for the KFC coupon had been exhausted, and marked “dead” (forum-speak for “don’t bother, this promotion is over), as thousands of forums users went to request a free “Buffalo Snacker.”
As the coupons started to arrive, people posted to say that KFC was sending a generic $1 gift certificate that was good towards any purchase, not just the advertised “Buffalo Snacker.” (KFC did put a sticker on the GC that said “Buffalo Snacker,” but this could be removed, and the terms of the GC clearly stated it was valid toward any purchase.) Others posted to brag that they had requested multiple coupons, and received them (even though the redemption offer was supposed to be one per person/household). Because the coupons were gift certificates to KFC they could be combined for more expensive item purchases. In short, this free item offer had been milked for all that it was worth, and then some.
Was this a successful offering for KFC? It probably was, as the company got lots of people to visit its locations who probably are not the usual customers (including me). Will this translate into increased long term sales for the company? This is more difficult to believe, as “freebie hunters” (those who troll the boards looking to capitalize on free offers) are a fickle bunch. They can easily come to an establishment to redeem a free promotion, and never return again (unless another free offer is made, of course). How many people actually redeemed the offer – did KFC actually get 103,000 new individual customers? The answer here is probably no. Even if only a third of the requesters (and this is being generous) made duplicate requests, the number of potential new customers goes down dramatically, add to this equation the fact that a majority of the redeemers were those fickle freebie hunters, and the number drops further still.
This is not to say that companies should refrain from doing such promotions, on the contrary these promotions work on some level, but it is mainly brand exposure. It’s quite unrealistic for KFC to think this promotion circumvented the skipping of its ad, or that it somehow made internet users and/or DVR owners suddenly think KFC’s a hip and cool company. (Regardless of what traditional media outlets crow about, Net users know the score in games like this.) I would like to thank KFC for sending me a $1 GC. I mean, I never saw the ad, but I did enjoy my “nearly free” potato wedges immensely. What’s a “Buffalo Snacker?” Anybody?
