KFC India boosts customer retention and revenue with gamified “Bucket It” campaign
2026-03-07 18:23 Diff
https://www.braze.com/customers/kfc-india-case-study

One of the largest and most loved fast food brands, KFC operates more than 30,000 restaurants worldwide. The KFC India brand has over 1,000 locations and is one of the key growth markets for the global brand. Their mission is to be the biggest, most heart-led QSR brand in the world.

For KFC India, the customer is at the center of everything they do. They align all brand efforts with providing ease, value, and access to the customer, which is why customer engagement is integral to their success. In their view, better engagement drives more brand stickiness, which leads to longer lifetime value.

KFC India turned to Braze for the ability to give them a detailed and holistic view of their customer, campaigns, and analytics. They were also looking to launch more innovative campaigns, and had been stifled by their previous platform. They were excited to bring their more creative ideas to life after integrating Braze.

Building a More Engaging App Experience

Despite its strong market presence, KFC India saw the opportunity to increase app engagement, drive more purchases, and increase new customer growth. Due to the rising popularity of online gaming in India, KFC India had previously launched a gamified, cricket-themed campaign that helped drive engagement and conversions. With those learnings in mind, they came up with the “Bucket It” game.

The “Bucket It” campaign encourages users to play a game to earn rewards like free menu items and money off orders. As the game itself was played on an external page, KFC India relied on an in-app message to redirect customers to the game. To drive higher awareness and participation in the campaign, the whole campaign extended across multiple channels:

  • Push notifications, sent daily to users who had not redeemed rewards in the last 3 days
  • Emails, sent biweekly to users who had not redeemed rewards in the last 3 days
  • SMS, sent biweekly to those likely to engage in new transactions as well as reminders to those who had already been engaged but had not responded in 7 days
  • Side up IAM sent daily to all users who had not redeemed their rewards

Each message was personalized using Liquid with coupon codes and offer attributes. KFC India also leveraged Facebook and Google for targeted advertising to further amplify the campaign.

To ensure the success of the campaign, it was important to manage performance in real-time, identifying opportunities for optimization based on user interactions. To do this, KFC India uses Braze Alloys tech partners Branch for tracking and Snowflake for robust data management and query handling. Throughout the campaign, KFC India continuously analyzed user engagement data, allowing them to tweak and optimize the game mechanics and user flows. This ongoing optimization helped maintain high engagement levels and adapt to changing user behavior.

The Impact of the 'Bucket It' Campaign

The "Bucket It" campaign was a resounding success for the KFC India team, leading to a 22% increase in average daily orders per store and 23% lift in daily revenue per store. It also helped improve user acquisition and retention with a 22% growth in new users and a 27% growth in repeat orders. They also saw a 3X jump in game sessions from the in-app message redirect to the game, with 80% of all game sessions attributed to the in-app message. Lastly, the SMS drove a 20% higher conversion rate than average SMS campaign conversions for that month.

Through the strategic use of Braze, KFC India effectively aligned this campaign with its broader business goals, enhancing brand loyalty and maximizing revenue.

Key Takeaways

  1. Gamification as a growth lever: Incorporating game elements into digital platforms can significantly enhance user engagement and retention, turning mundane interactions into exciting and rewarding experiences.
  2. Personalization drives conversion: Tailoring content and rewards to individual user behaviors and preferences can increase the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, leading to higher engagement and sales.
  3. The importance of cross-channel communication: Using a variety of communication channels ensures that the message reaches the customer in multiple contexts, reinforcing engagement and driving campaign success.

Interested in learning more ways KFC uses Braze to bring better experiences to their customers? See how KFC Ecuador boosted revenue by 15%, KFC Australia optimized SMS to increase purchases by 3X, and KFC Trinidad and Tobago leveraged Canvas to drive revenue.

Want to learn how you can go beyond traditional messaging to provide experiences that inspire customers to make transactions and repeat purchases? Download Monetization in Action: Turning engagement into revenue and profit.