How KFC hijacked 516,000 YouTube videos 🍗

Hello, awesome marketers and founders.
This is Luv, and here’s your weekly Marketing Shot :)

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If you found out 500,000 people were trying to rip off your product online, what would you do?

Most founders and legal teams would instinctively hit the "Panic" button. They would send cease-and-desist letters or issue copyright strikes.

But back in October 2021, KFC Spain did the exact opposite. They looked at the copycats and launched KFCopypaste campaign.

Here’s what happened.

KFC found that there were over 516,000 videos on YouTube promising to teach people how to cook Colonel Sanders' secret recipe.

Instead of viewing this as a threat, they realised two things:

1. Imitation is the best form of free advertising.

2. People were wasting hours trying to cook something that KFC sells for a few bucks.

They decided to reward the effort but prove a point: The original is always better.

They launched a simple website called KFCopypaste with a brilliant premise:

• The "Link Converter": Users could search YouTube for any video claiming to be a KFC recipe.

• The Swap: You pasted the YouTube URL into their website.

• The Reward: The site automatically converted that YouTube link into a code for free KFC chicken.

To make it viral, they added scarcity. Each YouTube URL could only be redeemed a limited number of times.

This forced users to:

1. Hunt specifically for "fake KFC" videos on YouTube (boosting the search volume for the brand).

2. Scramble to find obscure recipe videos that hadn't been used yet.

They effectively turned "pirated" content into a coupon distribution channel.

What do you think? Genius move or risky business? Reply and let me know.

⚡ 3 Noteworthy News Updates for Marketers

1. Threads Makes It Easier To Share Liked and Saved Posts

2. Meta Adds Content Strategy Advice to Paid Verification Package

3. Google Business Profiles adds scheduling and multi-location publishing to Google Posts

That's a wrap for today! Stay tuned for the next edition.

Thanks,
Luv