KFC's Jack Harlow collab begins with focus on younger consumers

KFC this week began a year-long partnership with rapper Jack Harlow, who is backing a lineup of personal favorites from the menu. The deal comes after competitor McDonald's has found success marketing meals plugged by music stars, including Travis Scott. 

Harlow is doing more than just selling food for KFC. The partnership—put together in December by the multicultural agency Nimbus—represents a strategic move to widen the appeal of the venerable chicken chain to a younger and more diverse audience. Stacey Wade, executive creative director and CEO of Nimbus, calls the approach “celebrity 2.0” and speaks to a relationship that is “more transformational than transactional.”

“KFC recognizes a need to bring more young consumers to the brand and be more culturally relevant: Jack is the vehicle to those new connections with the audience,” Wade said in an interview. “They are being very intentional, looking at this as a relationship, instead of saying, ‘Hey could you help us sell something?’ It’s a bigger opportunity they’re leaning into.”

Nimbus announced it was engaged with KFC in December but has actually been working with the brand since January of 2021, said Wade. The agency succeeded Sanders\Wingo, which previously handled multicultural marketing for KFC. Nimbus’ track record with fast-food clients—including Papa Johns—attracted KFC to the opportunity, Wade said.

Jack's Favorites

This week, KFC announced a slate of menu items identified as “Jack Harlow’s Kentucky Fried Favorites” would be featured on the KFC app and website. Brand executives and Harlow in a release described the partnership more as “best friends” than client-spokesman: The Grammy-nominated recording artist and chicken chain—as well as Nimbus—all call Louisville, Kentucky home.

“Partnering up with KFC feels like poetic justice,” Harlow said in a statement. “I’ve begun traveling the world and no matter how far I go, KFC is one of the first things people want to bring up when they find out where I’m from. I’m excited to align myself with something that started in Kentucky, but resonates all over the globe.”

The company said Harlow’s menu suggestions include favorites from his childhood visits to the restaurant as well as his current go-to orders. These include the spicy chicken sandwich, French fries, crispy chicken tenders, mac & cheese, and biscuits.

McDonald’s is recognized for having kicked off the celebrity menu trend starting with a 2020 Super Bowl ad, and continuing with promotions around orders endorsed by celebrities including Scott, Saweetie, BTS and Mariah Carey, among others. McDonald’s execs say the program works because it serves to remind customers of their own favorite orders, and because it makes its existing menu work harder by adding excitement without necessarily adding new items or resorting to promotional pricing.

Rivals like Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes have since followed with their own takes on celebrity meals.

While each of those partnerships related at some level toward expanding audiences, the Harlow-KFC partnership is strategically oriented that way, said Wade.

KFC’s involvement with celebrities until now revolved around a range of famous actors in the disguise of mascot Colonel Sanders. That program could be changing, however, as the chain settles into a relationship with a new creative agency, MullenLowe, which was appointed in February to succeed a long partnership with Wieden+Kennedy Portland, and a new chief marketing officer, Nick Chavez, who joined the company from Nintendo in November.

Nimbus announced it had secured Harlow for KFC in December, kicking off the partnership locally at Harlow’s performance at Louisville’s Palace Theatre Dec. 13, serving food from a KFC food truck in special packaging featuring Harlow. Creative assets from the Latinx-led Famous After Death agency, including a video and photos, were also introduced at that time. Harlow and KFC also made a charitable donation to victims of a tornado that struck the area on Dec. 11.

Harlow will be appearing in other promotions for KFC throughout the year including menu launches and exclusive experiences for KFC’s digital customers, a spokesperson said.

Harlow, whose “What’s Poppin’” was nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance, brings an “authentic humility” with appeal to young consumers, according to Wade. “Jack is not your typical artist. Coming from Kentucky, you have to work twice as hard as someone coming from a larger market, and I think that shows up in his humility, which you don’t see often in a celebrity. He’s is also a genuine fan of the KFC brand and really wanted to do this partnership.”

Harlow has only one other brand relationship, as a representative of the athletic shoe brand New Balance.

Restaurant analysts have long said KFC—in part because of its long history and equity—held less appeal to younger consumers compared with smaller and younger rivals like Raising Cane's, and that addressing that deficit was a driving force in its pursuit of Chavez, and the new relationship with MullenLowe. Wade said he anticipated that the brand and its agencies would work together to attack the opportunity with Nimbus providing its multicultural-focused “superpower,” to augment a developing plan.

KFC is a division of Yum Brands. KFC's U.S. same-store sales rose 4% during the fourth quarter of 2021, behind strong performance in group eating occasions, and its revamped chicken sandwich, which accounted for 9% of its total sales in the quarter, vs. 1% in the year-ago period, executives said.