The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2021
KFC Arabia's Shift+K+F+C cheat code auto-orders chicken and lifts bundle orders 19%
Typing Shift+K+F+C on KFC's site places a registered gamer's saved order automatically — the brand itself becomes a cheat code.
KFC Arabia
What it had to solve
KFC had spent years building gaming credibility in the Middle East, but it was still not converting the region's 350 million gamers into buyers. Research showed gamers did not want brands invading their games, and they played so continuously that they would not stop to check a menu — so KFC had to sell chicken to people who had no time to order it.
How it works
KFC had spent years earning credibility with gamers — dedicated gaming accounts, a dating game starring Colonel Sanders, even a chicken-heating console — but none of it converted to sales. The region held 350 million gamers, yet KFC had no efficient way to sell to people so absorbed in their screens that they forgot to eat.
Research showed the answer was not to enter the games. MENA gamers rejected brands that invaded their favorite titles, and no single game could reach players of every game. So TBWA\RAAD found the one thing all gamers shared: they knew cheat codes. KFC tweaked its website code so that typing Shift+K+F+C triggered a real-world cheat: registered users' IPs were recognized and their saved favorite meal was automatically ordered, processed and delivered, while unregistered users unlocked a secret menu item.
The campaign had zero production cost because the medium was the brand's own ecommerce site. KFC promoted the shortcut only on Twitch, through top MENA gamers, and let the community spread the code itself. Launched across seven Middle East countries, it turned a four-key combination into the first-ever ordering shortcut for a brand.
Why it lands
- Gamers would not leave their game to order food, so KFC attacked the checkout instead of the game: the ordering journey was compressed into one familiar gesture.
- A cheat code was the audience's own language, so the feature read as a gift to gamers rather than as an ad inside their world.
- Because registered customers already had a favorite meal, address and card on file, the shortcut needed no new UI, no production budget and no friction.
- Promoting only through Twitch streamers kept the launch inside gaming culture, where the code could spread as an insider tip.
What it did
Rolled out across seven Middle East countries for $0 in production cost, the shortcut drew 20 million social impressions, 1.7 million reach and 350,000-plus engagements, and online orders of the promoted combo rose 19%, with 93% of those orders coming from the gaming community. The work won a Gold Lynx at Dubai Lynx 2021, the WARC Prize for MENA Strategy Grand Prix 2021 and a Cannes Lions Media Bronze, and it is archived in the D&AD awards.
What you can take
To reach an audience that resents interruption, join their ritual instead of buying space in it: a brand that enters a gamer's world through its own code gets the order without breaking the session.
Since then
The numbers came in fast: 20 million social impressions, 1.7 million people reached, more than 350,000 engagements, a 19% rise in online orders of the promoted combo and 93% of those orders traced to the gaming community. The idea collected a Gold Lynx at Dubai Lynx 2021, the WARC Prize for MENA Strategy Grand Prix and a Cannes Lions Media Bronze in 2021, and it lives on in the D&AD awards archive. Its lesson — that a brand's own infrastructure can be the ad — kept resonating as KFC Arabia later built more gamer-native ordering stunts.
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