WHY KFC X ‘CHICKEN WINE’ IS SUCH A SMART BRAND COLLABORATION
SOMETIMES AN UNEXPECTED PAIRING JUST MAKES SENSE
At Wonderworks, we’re always interested in collaborations that make you stop for a second and think:
“Hang on… why is that so perfect?”
KFC’s recent partnership with La Vieille Ferme – otherwise known simply as “Chicken Wine” – is exactly that kind of idea.
On paper, it’s almost suspiciously simple.
Chicken brand + Chicken Wine.
But rather than stopping at the joke, the brands turned that connection into Coq au Vin: a pop-up wine bar in Shoreditch pairing KFC favourites with La Vieille Ferme wines. Popcorn Chicken with sparkling rosé. Hot Wings with red. Original Recipe Tenders with rosé or blanc.
It’s playful, PR-friendly and, most importantly, gives people something to actually experience. And for us, that’s where the idea gets interesting.
CHALLENGING THE RULES OF WINE
Wine has spent a very long time building rituals around itself.
The right glass. The right temperature. The right bottle. And, perhaps most importantly, the right food.
But all those rules can make the category feel intimidating. KFC and La Vieille Ferme take the opposite approach. Instead of telling people what they should drink with dinner, the collaboration essentially says: “drink the wine you like, with the food you like”.
That feels particularly appropriate for La Vieille Ferme. A wine with enormous popular appeal and a slightly irreverent relationship with traditional wine culture. Partnering with KFC turns that attitude into something physical.
For KFC, the benefit works in the opposite direction. Putting fried chicken into the ritual of a wine tasting playfully elevates something deliberately everyday. Suddenly the bucket belongs in the wine bar. Neither brand has to pretend to be something it isn’t. They just borrow a little of the other’s world.
WHEN THE SERVE BECOMES THE CREATIVE IDEA
What we particularly like is that the collaboration doesn’t stop at communication. The serve itself becomes part of the creative strategy.
Pairing particular wines with particular pieces of chicken gives people something to try, debate and share. Bringing it to life as a real-world pop-up takes that further, borrowing the visual and behavioural codes of a wine bar and turning the ‘high + low’ contradiction between French wine and fried chicken into the attraction.
As a creative drinks agency, we’re always interested in what happens when a campaign gives people something to do, rather than simply something to look at.
A ritual. A menu. A tasting. A reason to visit somewhere.
These things give a creative idea a physical role in people’s lives. In this case, ordering KFC with wine is the campaign. Perhaps the simplicity of that connection is part of what makes it so interesting, because you can imagine this idea arriving from two very different directions:
A deeper audience insight around the crossover between casual wine drinkers and fried chicken fans.
Or someone simply noticing that Chicken Wine + chicken was too good an opportunity to ignore.
FINDING NEW OCCASIONS IN UNEXPECTED PLACES
KFC and La Vieille Ferme aren’t alone in discovering that putting a familiar brand somewhere unexpected can open up interesting new territory.
Heinz x Absolut took the popularity of pasta alla vodka and made the partnership literal, creating a Heinz x Absolut Tomato Vodka Pasta Sauce. Tomato brand + vodka brand = vodka pasta sauce. Simple, culturally relevant and a clever way for Absolut to find an occasion beyond the cocktail glass.
Hendrick’s Gin x Katz’s Delicatessen found similarly unlikely common ground in the humble cucumber. What started as an April Fool’s joke became a real range of gin-inspired pickles – turning a tiny piece of shared brand territory into a product people could actually try.
Finally, 7UP’s Summer Sessions at Eatyard in Dublin used food pairings, cocktails and mocktails to put the familiar soft drink into a more elevated food experience – showing how changing the context around a product can change how people perceive it.
Different brands. Different executions. But the same underlying opportunity: take something familiar and put it somewhere unexpected.
The best collaborations expand both brands
That’s ultimately what we like most about KFC x Chicken Wine.
The best collaborations don’t just put two brands next to each other. They create a new moment that makes both feel more interesting.
For any drinks brand, there’s a useful lesson in that. You don’t always need an academic strategic connection. Sometimes you just need to spot two contrasting worlds that belong together and find a creative way to bring them to life.
Even if one of them comes in a bucket.
Need help finding the unexpected collaboration or brand activation that gets people talking? Get in touch with us today.
Inspired by our Creative Strategist, Dom Stancombe’s Weekly Rambles.