Camden Bernatz (00:00:02) - Welcome to brands and campaigns, the stories and people behind clever marketing moves powered by EKR. I'm your host, Camden Bernatz Bernatz, creative director and head of brand strategy at EKR. Welcome back to Brands and Campaigns. Today we're talking about a campaign that I came across recently that I think is a great example of creativity and strategy, not only because of what was actually used in the campaign, but because of the timeliness of it. We're going to talk about the campaign for KFC Canada that is tied into the Stanley Cup, the championship of the NHL Hockey League. So this year's Stanley Cup was between the Edmonton Oilers in Canada and the Florida Panthers. Unfortunately, Casey, you didn't hear the news. Edmonton I guess I guess not if you're a Panthers fan, but for this campaign and campaign for KFC Canada. Unfortunately, the Oilers did not emerge victorious. But in the heat of the Stanley Cup, there was this creative KFC campaign that happened in which they ran KFC ads from the 90s. Why do they do that? Well, the 90s were the last.

Camden Bernatz (00:01:10) - Not not just the night, I should say, from 1990, the year. And that was because that was the last time that the Oilers won the Stanley Cup. So as they were in the finals and we're struggling a little bit to pull ahead and to secure the win, KFC Canada ran these ads to kind of get some good luck, some good karma, some superstitious, goodwill going their way to say, hey, these ads are running. Last time that the Oilers won, let's run the same ads again, give them some luck. And just a fun. Obviously not back to a different time. Some nostalgia at what KFC was running back in the day. KFC Canada specifically and so kind of unique campaign. Like I said, because of the timeliness of it, just capitalizing on a moment in pop culture and also because it was actually reusing old assets. It wasn't creating a bunch of new assets, although there was obviously some unique modern spins on them and some new copy. But to get into the details of that and how this came to be and what we can learn from this clever campaign, I have two guests today from Courage out of Canada, two creative directors, Jesse Wilkes and Gerardo Agboola.

Camden Bernatz (00:02:15) - So Jesse and Gerardo, thank you for being here today.

Jesse Wilks (00:02:17) - Thank you so much for having us. We're super excited to chat. We're really happy with the campaign, but a little bit sad today because the Oilers ultimately did not win. But I do. You know, I'd like to think that our campaign maybe helped win them 1 or 2 of the games. We tried our very best, but, you know, they're one goal away, so we're still getting over the loss, but really happy with the results of the campaign.

Camden Bernatz (00:02:40) - Yeah, a tough one. This would be a much a much different I shouldn't say much different, but a more positive podcast episode if they pulled it off. And this was a a classic win story, but oh well, it's still a good work I think for sure. And so I want to first ask, I believe you have some kind of interesting background on how this campaign came to be. Obviously, there's a lot of like I keep using the word timeliness, but like it was something that kind of happened in the moment.

Camden Bernatz (00:03:03) - You couldn't have planned this like years down the road because it was about things happening in the moment. So how did this come to be? Where was the beginnings of this idea within your agency and with your client?

Jesse Wilks (00:03:13) - Yeah, so I think it was maybe after the Edmonton Oilers had beaten the, I believe, the Dallas Stars in the third round, and they were going to the Stanley Cup Finals. One of the partners here at Kurds just sent out an all-staff saying, oh, hey, you know, a few of our clients have, you know, ties to the Edmonton Oilers, whether they're like sponsorships, partnerships. Do we have any proactive ideas or anything that we could like, do even like a social post? So we started just texting them a couple quick ideas, I think, like some of them were just kind of silly. Like, what if there's a KFC bucket in the shape of the Stanley Cup or something like that? and, you know, we were kind of just did like a quick sprint brainstorm, jotted down a couple, like, silly bad ideas.

Jesse Wilks (00:03:55) - And it was the next day I woke up to a text and Gerardo texted me at 6 a.m. on it was the Wednesday morning and he said, because we were reading this article about how Connor McDavid, the star of the Edmonton Oilers, kept wearing the same suit and fans were calling him out online because every game he's wearing the same suit because he's very, very superstitious. So Gerardo texted me, what if KFC aired the same ads we did in 1990, the last time the Oilers won the Cup? It was literally just a text message, and I was like, I was kind of blurry-eyed, you know, just like kind of looking And even in my, like, early morning brain, I still like, that's a that's a sweet idea. Okay, we got it. Let's like that's that's awesome. So I remember just being super pumped to get to work and kind of put it in a little deck. And I think pretty much as soon as we had shared it with, with some of the partners here, they were instantly texting the KFC clients, being like, you know, the series is starting in a few days, how quickly can we do this? And they liked it.

Jesse Wilks (00:04:55) - And then from there it was just sort of like off to the races. But I think when you're doing the timely work like this, there's less of that sort of like big presentation, like like, okay, long timelines, it's literally done over like sometimes text messages and you're just kind of like, yeah, a little bit scrappier just because I think being able to do it fast is, and, and pull it off is, I think, more important than doing it perfectly necessarily.

Camden Bernatz (00:05:17) - Because you don't want to miss the moment. Right? right? You don't want to have something die because you took too long. We talked a few episodes back with Mike Nuzzo, who was creative director for Oreo when they did the Super Bowl tweet that you might have saw 2013 when there was the blackout. Same kind of thing they did. They had to make sure that things were good. There wasn't like, you know, a terrorist attack or some reason that they shouldn't respond to it, but quickly jump on the moment to put that graphic out.

Camden Bernatz (00:05:38) - And yeah, same kind of thing where you got to make sure that it's yeah, you're getting things done well, but you can't be too red tape. You can't you can't organize it so much that you miss the moment. And so yeah, that makes sense. That's awesome. Good job Gerardo, on having that thought that he come to you in a dream. Like, how did that come? How did that come to your to your mind?

Gerardo Agbuya (00:05:57) - You know, it's a lot of conversation. I mean, one thing that that went on our first day, one of our creative directors here, Raoul, gave an advice of like, you really just have to be in tune to what's going on, because a lot of the stuff that we do in the agency, too, is very timely. So part of that is just, again, as Jesse was saying, knowing that people are reacting to Connor Mcdavid's wearing the same suit every game, and it kind of just clicked, you know, we're like, okay, what? He's superstitious.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:06:25) - What if we just joined that kind of train perspective of a fan and, cheer the Oilers in a way that the fans would appreciate. That's something that they already talking about. So that kind of just honestly woke up my I have a newborn newborn son, not newborn. He's like, what now he wakes up at, you know, 6 a.m. So I woke up early and from there I was like, oh, what if we do this? And I just texted it to Jesse. And from there on again, it's like off to the races of, okay, we have to share it right away. We don't even know if we can get any of the footage. We don't even know what's out there. But let's share the thought. And again, the everyone in the agency kind of rallied and helped bring it together.

Camden Bernatz (00:07:04) - Case after case, there's examples of a good ideas and and creatives working on things outside of the office sometimes like you know, shower thoughts or you wake up in the night or things like that.

Camden Bernatz (00:07:14) - So another another example of that is to store a way of sometimes you got to sit on something for a minute, and then the idea will come to you later. That's awesome. And it's a great way to. Obviously your client was not the Oilers, it's it's KFC. But being relevant, you're able to attach your client's brand in a way that makes them part, not not trying to just like take advantage of the moment. But you're part of like you're one of the fans. Like we are rooting for them as well. We're with you. We're doing this thing to try to, you know, superstitious, kind of playful way of getting some good luck. So it's it endears yourself to people that are already a passionate fan base for this hockey team. Again, easier said than done. In hindsight, it's easy to talk about, but it definitely took some strategic strategic thinking and some some risk-taking on you and your clients and to do so and so. Yeah, that's why you're here. I love that totally.

Jesse Wilks (00:08:01) - And I think because I think just the way the NHL is and the way Stanley Cup playoffs usually play out, I think there's this sort of impetus in Canada where we want a Canadian team to win, even though I'm a, you know, I'm a Leafs fan. We're here in Toronto. But, as they got eliminated, you're kind of like, okay, what other other the Canadian teams. Because I feel like there's this sort of chip on our shoulders, as you know, thinking hockey is our national pastime and sport. And yet we haven't won a Stanley, a Canadian team hasn't won a Stanley Cup since 1993. So even in my life, I was two years old and so I don't remember it. But in my lifetime, I've never even seen a Canadian team win. So I think that's a feeling most Canadians have where they we all kind of rally around the same, like whatever Canadian team is left. So I think with this client being KFC Canada, I don't think they were necessarily like worried about, you know, offending any Florida fans, knowing that our audience is Canadians and Canadians in general want to rally around the Canadian team left.

Jesse Wilks (00:08:56) - So I think you're right. It's about was about cheering with the fans and becoming part of it. Not sort of trying to like take over it.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:09:03) - And honestly, that's where as I was saying earlier, I think you mentioned that Camden Bernatz is just filling all our brains with all the information we can, and it's one of those things that is just sat in the back of our head since it just clicked at the right time, which, you know, I think when that happens, it's super exciting, but But it's not always the case. The work becomes.

Camden Bernatz (00:09:22) - Fun, right? That's when it's not just a job, but it's like, oh, I'm eager to get going on that and push it to the next level. And yeah, that's great.

Jesse Wilks (00:09:28) - And I think sometimes the best creative opportunities come from those things that are reactive or quick. Like a lot of times, you know, you have your like set projects that you're working on that have longer timelines, but I think there's always opportunities to get really quick.

Jesse Wilks (00:09:41) - Creative wins when you have to react to something quickly. A moment in culture. Because a lot of times I think that a lot of the overthinking that happens and extra rounds of feedback on these really long timelines, sometimes the creative can get watered down. But when you're doing something really, really quick and you have to react, there's no time for that. Overthinking everyone. It's like the ideal leads. I remember there's a quote about Saturday Night Live and it was Lorne Michaels saying, we don't go on because we're ready. We go on because it's 1130 on a Saturday, right? It's like, and I think that's almost the mentality we were trying to keep in mind as we're working on working on this, it's like, all right, super tight timeline. This has to be on air in a week. Like how does this the idea lead? And we don't go through all the sort of extra layers and extra presentations that we normally, normally do.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:10:27) - Never waste a good emergency. You know.

Camden Bernatz (00:10:30) - That's the quote of the podcast right there.

Camden Bernatz (00:10:32) - Yeah.

Camden Bernatz (00:10:33) - That's awesome. Okay. So the idea is pitched. It's approved as far as the initial high-level concept, but then you got to go and kind of find the assets. Were there any from the client's end or I guess internally to in your time, were there any hesitancy as like, okay, the idea is great, but like, do we want to run these things that kind of look outdated or is there any was there any fear in doing that? Were they fully on board?

Gerardo Agbuya (00:10:53) - Not at all. I think we we really had to lean into it, I think in terms of, fear are only like one of our bigger fear was where do we find these assets? How can we find these assets? Can we even digitize them? Who owns them, like all that, all that stuff? So I think, shout out to our production, our production, our producers and the agency. They did an amazing job kind of, handling that. And, we actually found a few storage places that were storing the old, a lot of old KFC ads.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:11:27) - So we had someone come in on a maybe, I think it was Saturday to digitize some of them, but we didn't know what we had until we were in the edit room. And I think that was, an exciting thing about this one is that we almost we had to finish the ad to even know if it's going to work, because we didn't know what footage. We didn't know what's in the chest. You know, it was pretty. It was pretty interesting looking through hours and hours of those footage and picking who has those.

Camden Bernatz (00:11:52) - Old ones you're talking about was that KFC had had those hanging on or some agency or where did you get those?

Jesse Wilks (00:11:57) - It wasn't so original when we pitched the idea, like we were thinking, oh, somewhere in the KFC archives, they must have this. Like, you know, someone must have been keeping track and have their entire body of work somewhere. but that that wasn't quite the case. It was actually a producer, Clare, who's an absolute superstar, and she was reaching out to storage facilities and different sort of different kind of like production companies to see if anyone had any assets from 1992 at KFC.

Jesse Wilks (00:12:26) - And it was one of those things like, okay, so the you know, the part the OECD's here have approved the idea, the clients approved the idea. And then it was sort of kind of hanging in the rafters, like, are we even going to be able to find any assets? Right. It's like that was sort of the moment of truth. So then I remember getting a text from her saying, okay, we found this like box that says KFC 1990. And we're like, okay, that's a good sign. Then hopefully that's something. And then it was literally like, okay, we're gonna go to the edit room and review some of this footage together. And that was like almost this like kind of dramatic moment of truth being like, are these going to be good? Like, are these even going to work? And we ended up finding like a ton of stuff. I think some of it, a lot of it was unusable, like a lot of it was like illustrated or just kind of just not quite right.

Jesse Wilks (00:13:09) - A lot of it was French.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:13:11) - Probably like products that no longer exists. You know, that's the.

Camden Bernatz (00:13:14) - Question I was going to ask next is like, oh, this is awesome, but we can't advertise this thing that no one can actually go by now. Like, yeah.

Jesse Wilks (00:13:19) - A lot of them had. Yeah. Like, just products from 1990 that they didn't have anymore. So but from that we were able to find, you know, quite a few more like the KFC bucket is sort of it's like that sort of it's iconic thing. So we were able to find a few different assets and commercials that just sort of feature that people eating. So once we knew we had a few things that could work, that's when we were like, okay, off to the races. We are literally reviewing the footage and editing it all at once in one day and like putting it together. So not a boring job. It was, you know, much more exciting than a regular day at the office.

Camden Bernatz (00:13:50) - That's crazy.

Camden Bernatz (00:13:51) - Digging through like, boxes and stuff and that. Yeah, that. That's when you're one. It shows the excitement behind the idea. And being truly creative is like that. Doesn't the people in your agency don't have in your job description to go sort through old archives, like that's not something you normally do, right? And if you're willing to break your process, make some phone calls, do some digging to get the best result. That's when the best stuff happened. So props to you and your team. And, Claire, is that what you said your name was? Yeah.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:14:17) - Claire. Claire's an absolute superstar. I want to give a shout out. Honestly, we she we chatted with her. I think maybe it was Friday, Sunday, Monday, Saturday, Sunday, looking at the footage. And by Monday, we're in the editing room and all. While all of these were going on, the Oilers were already losing. Game one, lost game two. So at that point, we were like, damn.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:14:42) - Okay, should we still here? Should we still keep doing this? But luckily game three was their home game. So it's kind of a perfect timing to kind of, you know. Yeah. reinforce the superstitious, superstitious, kind of campaign and game three. They didn't win, but they got good momentum going into game four. So and then from there on, we just kept kind of running the running the ads in the campaign.

Jesse Wilks (00:15:08) - And they went on a historic run like they ultimately didn't win. But then they did win three games in a row. yeah. After that. So it was kind of I felt like each game my phone was kind of blowing up as people texted me be like, hey, I saw your commercials are on the thing. It's actually working. so it was it was I kind of felt famous for a week. It was, but it was. It was really exciting.

Camden Bernatz (00:15:30) - so I'm going to ask you a question. I don't know if you can answer or not, but I'm going to ask you, was there a plans? If they did win that there would be some kind of follow up? It was it was something that left behind because I didn't win.

Jesse Wilks (00:15:42) - Yes. And that's the most heartbreaking part, is that we had this amazing finale planned. I'm not going to say what it was, but, I still think, you know, the campaign, I think, got a lot of recognition and has been really successful. So still happy that that this was able to happen. But yeah, it's sad that we didn't get to do the grand finale.

Camden Bernatz (00:16:03) - If the orders hang on to it. We'll see. We'll see. That's that is the name of the game though, right? When you're. Oh yeah. Things in the moment, you don't get to control how it turns out. But you can you can respond to things. So that's the highs and the lows I think you experience both in this.

Camden Bernatz (00:16:18) - Campaign.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:16:18) - And because every like every game, they were in an elimination game. So it's almost like every time they play we're like, will this be the last time this runs. Yeah. Like they won okay. What do we do next. Oh they won.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:16:30) - What do we do next. And then again get to game seven. We're like okay. The whole game seven, we were like planning out, okay, what are we going to do? We had this grand finale thing and we had it ready. We had it ready.

Camden Bernatz (00:16:44) - I'm just going to take a five-second one more than five-seconds. But a slight little tangent. I don't even know if there's a question in here, but I'm just thinking out loud. One thing I learned, or I feel hearing the story from you and observing this campaign, is the value of having a true partnership with your client. And by that I mean I don't know what it was like exactly in your offices and how many hours you gave to this and stuff behind the scenes. But I know when you said just now, like every game was an elimination game and in the moment, planning for the next couple of days. And like I, I'm sure that you had time that was dedicated to this. And thinking about this and searching for files that went beyond a typical like hourly retainer or like a set, you know, exact dollar amount budget.

Camden Bernatz (00:17:26) - And to be able to deliver in a way that you could do a good job. And it's hard to do that when you have clients and relationships with clients or agencies that structure things that are so rigid in how a deliverable gets sent or how people spend their time or, yeah, I guess I'm trying to say just the process gets to cut down to where you can actually just do what needs to happen. I'm going to do that thing. And so I guess, again, I don't know if that was a question in there at all, but I'm just I'm just props to that process for you to have that relationship because this does not fit inside of a typical engagement and a typical like statement of work. This is just being partners and capturing an opportunity together.

Jesse Wilks (00:18:09) - Totally. And I think we're still relatively new here at courage. But I would say this agency sort of built around letting those opportunities and letting the creative lead. And I think trying to be true partners to the clients. I think, you know, throughout this process, our best interest is to make our clients look really good.

Jesse Wilks (00:18:26) - And I think when we're doing this work, it's ultimately it's really fun to do. But the thing we're working towards is to like, like you said, make KFC a part of this, like kind of exciting moment and culture and rally around with people. So I think knowing that our best like the thing that we're going for is, you know, to make our client look amazing. And I think that helps us hopefully build that trust where we were able to step outside of the typical, you know, presentation structure. And I think the our account partners and are the creative partners here, we're able to, you know, moreso get on a texting basis for super quick approvals. I remember Duvall saying, one of the creative partners here, when you're doing timely or reactive stuff, you kind of just have to be ready to dance, react to, you know, each game has a different outcome, and you kind of just have to always kind of be on your toes and be prepared for whatever the outcome is.

Jesse Wilks (00:19:15) - So I think everyone here is, you know, trying to be as agile as possible to ultimately like, you know, hero the creative and make sure that our clients are always looking good.

Camden Bernatz (00:19:24) - Well said.

Camden Bernatz (00:19:26) - So using assets that were already again you had to like update them and digitize them. But existing assets, what was can you talk us through the process of like deciding how much to then add to that? Because you have to say while you're running them, you have to put out copy explaining like I see one add-on like from on the AD Age article on the outside of the arena ads from 1990 to channel winning vibes from 1990. Like it's pretty much it's pretty simply stay, but you have to kind of add some content to that. How did that planning go, as opposed to we just run these on TV? Do we do social media? What is that process like?

Gerardo Agbuya (00:19:59) - You know, just because, KFC is the official partner of the Edmonton Oilers. We had already some of those assets in the arena.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:20:07) - But in terms of the TV we didn't have, I don't from what I know, we didn't have any buy. It's a lot of it is like, guys, we have this. This is what we're going to do. Can we get any spots? So it's like from client agency, I went really kind of just held hands and, and, we always say you kind of just start as a seed and then let it grow. So we started with the TV and some of the print ads that we already know that might have placement. And then from there on we were like, okay, what else can we do in social? Maybe even some simple social post? But yeah, I think overall it's just really even just looking at the assets and all that stuff, it's it was just let's just try to make things happen. We're moving as fast as possible. And in terms of like building all the assets and all that stuff and looking at the messaging, I think for us, because it was such a timely response to what's going on, it was clearly, you know, like, how do we be as clear as possible with the asset that we put out, even art direction, the way you read the copy, just that when people see it, they get it right away.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:21:11) - Because once if we make it a bit more complicated and it gets lost, the whole thing would just fall apart. You know, no one's going to get that. It's being superstitious. No one's going to get that. Oh, it's from the 90s. The last time the worry was once. It's really about again, how do we be as clear as possible without overdoing it? And, even in art and art direction, you know, like we added in the, in the back end, you see, there's some supers in there, but a lot of it is really just to support why we're showing the 90s ad in terms of like making it look at this ad, you know, it wasn't about an offer.

Jesse Wilks (00:21:42) - Yeah, I definitely think something like this needed a little more unpacking than, than some other type of work. And honestly, I think if we worked out for another three weeks, we probably could have even got a shorter. But I think in the interest of trying to move really quickly, we just, you know, we didn't write 30 different versions of supers.

Jesse Wilks (00:21:57) - Those are the first ones we wrote in the room. And that was like ultimately when it went on air. But I think for the TV, what we want to catch people off guard, almost like, you know, you're watching sports and your commercials are on. That's when you're going to go to the bathroom or like look at your phone. So we kind of wanted to catch people of like, wait a minute, like, what's going on? That's sort of like old ad and then almost like interrupt it, have a glitchy and and then sort of explain why. Yeah. So it was like letting that asset live and then following it up with our messaging. Whereas I think the out-of-home and some of the print work, we took assets like photography and then added supers and tried to just make it look very 1990s, like the gotcha, the winning, channeling the winning vibe. So that was taking some photography, but then us coming up in sort of a 90s style. Yeah.

Camden Bernatz (00:22:39) - Which is yeah, I can tell, like it's hard to describe what it is about it.

Camden Bernatz (00:22:43) - I mean, just the color, the, the tint, I don't know, but like, yeah, it looks old, but in a modern execution. Yeah.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:22:50) - I think what's good about brand KFCs because they have such iconic and distinctive asset. So even the, the I think you're looking at the bucket with the lineup. Right with the old bucket that that's a screenshot from one of the spots. So we were like, we have to keep it true. Otherwise if we we actually went through rounds of kind of recreating some stuff. And the weird part is that a lot of the 90s visuals are now cool. So yeah, when we when we tried it, we were like, wait, it feels weirdly modern. So it's all about like, okay, we, I think we have to use for, for the posters. We just really have to find the assets that they had back in the in 1990. And that's what we use. And we the type just had to match the overall color that were all vibe.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:23:36) - We didn't really do like we I don't think we did any retouching on it. That's just like pure awesome. that's the pure kind of image. And again, we just had to lean into it. I think the more old it felt, the more authentic it felt. So that was our goal.

Jesse Wilks (00:23:52) - Yeah, I remember the first couple comps. We were like, these kind of feel like cool, like a million door like fashion ads where it's like, it feels like 90s in a cool 2024 way. And we're like, it kind of has to look like more like bad 90s, not like the yeah, I don't know, a lot of those extra fonts and stuff like that. I think are being used a lot now. So we're like, it has to be very clearly like so bad. It's good kind of 90s aesthetic. That's funny.

Camden Bernatz (00:24:18) - Yeah, yeah, I get that. One thing I love about.

Camden Bernatz (00:24:22) - This is the taking the step or taking the idea step further. And by that I mean you could have had the idea, oh, the 90s.

Camden Bernatz (00:24:30) - That's when the 1990s, last time they won, let's like do something that uses old 90s footage. But then if you just stop there, the kind of the low-hanging fruit idea would have been like, so let's run a promotion where we you can buy this product for the same price that it cost in the 90s, which isn't like a bad idea. Like you could. That's not bad. But like, it's it's still it's advertising. It's like, come sail, come buy now direct sales. And it's like kind of a cheap way of capitalizing on the moment. But you took it a step further, which is we're not going to try to directly ask for your money. Obviously, we want you to buy our chicken, of course, but we're just going to be part of the people rooting for our Canadian team, and we're just going to have some in some endearment, some nostalgia, some some fun. And indirectly, of course, it is an ad, but it is a it's entertainment.

Camden Bernatz (00:25:17) - It is. And we've been talking a lot in my agency internally about that, like ads on how to look like ads in the sense that traditional ads like people, people try to put on ad blockers and avoid ads to get told they need to buy something. People seek out entertainment. And so if you can put something that is quote-unquote, an ad that feels like entertainment or feels like something you'd want to engage with, but people don't run from that. They embrace that kind of stuff. And this did that very well. So I like that.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:25:42) - Thank you. I think the cool thing actually, is that, so we had those posters ready around the arena and we showed it to some of the franchisees of KFC in Edmonton, and they were so down for it that they also transformed some of their stores into kind of a 90s vibe. Oh, really? All the all the old posters were there. And, one of the cool thing I think that you touched on is, they brought back a kind of a 1990 pricing for how.

Jesse Wilks (00:26:12) - You say they did, and they.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:26:14) - Did do.

Jesse Wilks (00:26:14) - The 90s pricing.

Camden Bernatz (00:26:15) - Included that.

Jesse Wilks (00:26:15) - That was part that was part of it. But it wasn't like the hero thing. But there was like 90 pricing was part of the law. I think that's great.

Camden Bernatz (00:26:24) - But by itself I'm like, oh, that's kind of you get five seconds thinking, oh, nice. And then go pass this. This had more legs than that. So that's cool to know. It's part of it too.

Jesse Wilks (00:26:32) - And I think it was really about like you're saying entertainment. It just sort of having this halo effect on the brand as like, you know, keeping KFC top of mind. And it just, I guess having a bit of a like a, for lack of a better word, just kind of a bit of a cool factor or just a brand that always feels relevant. I think people are ultimately going to be more attracted and interested in that brand, and it's going to kind of have this magnetic effect over it as opposed to, yeah, just being always like super low funnel, like kind of tactical sales messaging.

Jesse Wilks (00:26:57) - You kind of got to make people love you first. Yeah.

Camden Bernatz (00:27:00) - And keep up with that. Right. You keep people are going to buy chicken. They're going to buy your they're going to they're going to eventually choose between you or competitor. If you offer something of value, give them to a want to buy it from you, as opposed to feel like you forced your way into their attention and, you know, annoyed them into buying it. Right. And so, yeah, definitely a great example of that. Looking back now on this, which I'm sure was a whirlwind few weeks ago, this was happening in real time. Looking back, I don't want to suggest that we try to formalize. Is that a word? Formulate? Create a formula for, success? Because there needs to be. Basically, you can't formulate virality or copy-paste a good campaign all the time. But looking back at this, is there any lessons or takeaways that you would that you either took from that, or you think other creatives in the industry could look at this and learn from?

Jesse Wilks (00:27:49) - To me.

Jesse Wilks (00:27:49) - I would say, I think part of our almost responsibility as creatives is to. And I'm not the first person to say this, but is to be a bit of a sponge and be naturally interested in what's going on in culture. I think, you know, we naturally we're just sports fans, so you're kind of keeping up what's going on in that world. But I think a lot of work at the agency, we just a month before did some reactive work to the Kendrick and Drake beef, because that was a moment in culture. So I think just naturally being someone who's following, you know, whatever the kind of those fun, buzzy stories are on the internet and knowing if there are opportunities, you know, to either become part of those moments for your clients. And I think it's just a little bit of like a numbers game. I think in advertising in general, it's also your responsibility to pump out quantity and knowing if you're going to like this KFC superstitious campaign was one of like 15 other things, and I think, you know, knowing just the way this business works, if you're always taking at-bats and taking swings, eventually you're going to get some hits.

Jesse Wilks (00:28:49) - So I think the things to learn is it's this campaign could have died a million times. We've worked on a ton of other campaigns that did die at various various points. So I think it's about just trying to pump out as much of these kind of timely work as possible, knowing 90% of it's going to die. And when you do have the things that live to be, you know, agile and ready to, like, kind of go as soon as you get the green light.

Camden Bernatz (00:29:13) - Yeah. Gone are the days that you work on kind of one nice commercial per year and try to have that coast, you know that this isn't the madman days where you play, you make a buy and it lasts for a long. You got to be relevant. Things get replaced. And it doesn't mean that you need to churn out new stuff every single day necessarily. But yeah, you've got to be you've got to be active in the moment and quantity, like you said, because even if you do something awesome, it's going to be old news within a month.

Camden Bernatz (00:29:36) - Right. You got you got to stay current and relevant.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:29:38) - Absolutely. Jesse and I always talk about this and we always say, you know, we used to we used to drive by our ads and now we scroll through it, you know. So again, it's just like it's just it's just a cycle. It's just moving. So I think in terms of looking at kind of reactive work, I think one thing I learned, especially with this, Jesse is a massive hockey fan. I didn't grow up watching hockey, but quite familiar with it is that, just because of the conversation and the knowledge that he has is kind of worked to our advantage to kind of know what to love about hockey, you know, and the the fandom and the superstitious and, and all the rituals that that goes with the sport and how deep it goes. I think that was a very nice I think, the advantage to have. So I would say, like, you know, if you're creative, looking to do some reactive work, look at what you like, you know, like if you like music, being tuned to different kinds of music, if you like sports, being into sports, and there's always moments that, you know, people will talk about, whether it's, whatever's trending.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:30:38) - But again, I think once you as long as you have your ear into kind of things that are going on and it spikes your interest, sometimes there's a natural, I don't want to say, easy way to react to it, but you find it more enjoyable than reacting to things that you don't necessarily understand. We take.

Camden Bernatz (00:30:55) - Yeah, when it's.

Camden Bernatz (00:30:56) - More natural than than forced.

Camden Bernatz (00:30:57) - If you're like.

Camden Bernatz (00:30:58) - I see a fun connection to this and this entertains me or this is interesting to me, then it's more of a natural connection. You can help share others as opposed to trying to force your way into a conversation where you don't fit or something like that.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:31:10) - Exactly.

Camden Bernatz (00:31:11) - Yeah.

Camden Bernatz (00:31:12) - This is all good stuff. And I'm my my wheels are turning now, thinking about how I can maybe apply some of these things better with with the clients I'm working with and, and going forward. But, yeah, I, I'm impressed with not only you guys, but we've talked to Matt and Tommy from your agency as well recently like Kit Kat campaign.

Camden Bernatz (00:31:28) - you guys have been doing some creative stuff over there, so I need to go see what's in the water and in Canada. yeah, I would say it's.

Jesse Wilks (00:31:36) - We're pretty new here, but I would say it's a pretty special place. Like, I think there's just such an infectious energy where everyone's, you know, always doing it because everyone here is, is really passionate about ideas. And I think a lot of other agencies are like a lot of times you're kind of, I don't know, the passion isn't as much in the air or here. You can just feel like everyone wants to, like, have a hit or do awesome work. And I think it's just a really exciting environment to be a part of.

Camden Bernatz (00:32:01) - It's fun. That's fun. And it makes the long the extra hours here and there don't feel so bad when it's something you're you're excited to see come to fruition. Cool, awesome. Well, thank you for your time today, guys. I, I want to make sure we, give a chance for anybody who's interested in following you or getting in touch with you, what's the best way for them to do that?

Jesse Wilks (00:32:19) - I'm pretty active on Instagram, so my handle is just Jesse underscore Wilkes.

Jesse Wilks (00:32:23) - But if not, our website is Gerardo and Jesse. Com and it has all our contact information there as well LinkedIn emails, all that kind of stuff. So yeah. Cool.

Camden Bernatz (00:32:32) - Same for you, Gerardo. Anything else you want to plug?

Jesse Wilks (00:32:34) - Yeah.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:32:35) - Yeah. I mean my Instagram is g swagger. I got I got it pretty early. So now they're like G swagger one, G swagger two. But I have the original one. so I thought I thought about changing it a few times now as I became ever more professional.

Camden Bernatz (00:32:51) - But you can't. You can't.

Gerardo Agbuya (00:32:52) - Lose it. Can't lose the original spot. Yeah. And now someone's going to take it. but, yeah, I was just saying, you know, we can find us on LinkedIn, our website.

Camden Bernatz (00:33:02) - Awesome. Well, again, thank you for your time. And and for those who want to get in touch with us at the show. Again, I mentioned last episode. We have, our email address is ready to go.

Camden Bernatz (00:33:09) - Now, if you want to reach out to us at Brands Pod at our agency.com, and send us either your recommendations for people we need to have on work, we need to feature. hey, at this point, I want to hear your theories on what the finale was going to be if the Oilers won. I want to hear some of those theories. We can tease.

Camden Bernatz (00:33:26) - Some of those.

Camden Bernatz (00:33:28) - Just kidding. Well, we won't reveal anything, but I'm curious now. But yeah. Reach out to us. Subscribe if you have it. Subscribe. Share the podcast. We're still growing and looking forward to having more people on like Jesse and Gerardo and more work featured. Like this fun KFC ad. So stay tuned. We'll give you some more content quickly. And this has been the Brands and Campaigns podcast. See you.