It used to be that “free” was a dirty word in e-mail promotions, because it would get your message flagged as spam by ISP filters. Turns out that actually giving something away for free—or even for an extremely reduced price—is getting to be a very tricky proposition in the real world, too.

And when it’s food, the problems multiply exponentially.

Case in point: KFC’s Oprah-gate experience last week.

In case you missed it—a slim likelihood, given the Winfrey factor—here’s the outline of what happened.

As part of the UNThink campaign to introduce its new grilled chicken menu to the world, KFC managed to get Oprah Winfrey to announce to her TV audience that her show’s Web site, http://www.Oprah.com, would let visitors download a printable coupon for a free two-piece meal of Kentucky Grilled Chicken, plus two sides and a biscuit.

Catch One: The coupon was only available on the site during a 36-hour window, although it was redeemable at participating KFC stores until May 19 or “while supplies last.” Catch Two: The coupons were not valid on May 10, Mothers Day. And Catch Three: Users had to download a specific application to print it, and were reportedly supposed to be able to print out only four coupons, redeeming one offer per coupon and one coupon per person.

That’s the deal, and on one basic level, it seemed to work. Within two days, participating KFC stores had given away 4.5 million meals. Unfortunately, they had 10.5 million coupon downloads from the site, leaving a substantial number of patrons who wanted their two-piece meals but weren’t able to get them. As in, the stores ran out of grilled chicken.

It gets worse. First, while the servers distributing the downloadable coupon to Oprah’s site never crashed, they did slow considerably under the weight of that much download traffic. That frustrated would-be customers. At least some of them hit up friends and relations for coupons and may in fact have received photocopies, which were designed not to work with the in-store scanners. Uh-oh. More frustration potential.

Here the story gets a bit fuzzy, thanks to that magnificent echo chamber, the Internet. People started reporting in blogs and on Twitter that they were being turned away by store managers who’d run out of product. People also started reporting that some managers were refusing to honor the free-meal-deal without an additional purchase. In some cases, people were reporting that some stores simply said they weren’t honoring the coupons. This might be because not all franchisees were participating in either the promotion or the grilled menu.

Rumors began spreading that customers were rioting and that police were cordoning off stores. At least one customer protest may have involved a sit-in.. Sorry about all the conditional details, but the Web favors strong statements, not verified truths, and calls to KFC and others involved in the campaign have not been returned at press time.

Here’s what’s undeniable: On Thursday May 7, KFC chairman Roger Eaton posted a video message to the KFC.com Web site and also on YouTube explaining in upbeat terms that due to an unexpectedly enthusiastic public response to the offer, KFC would not be able to redeem the coupons still at large in the way it had planned. Rather, customers should go to their local KFC outlet and get a rain check, which will still be redeemable for a free two-piece grilled meal, with a free Pepsi thrown in as a deal sweetener.



On May 8, Eaton went onto Oprah’s show and made his apologies before a live audience.

So is this a PR disaster, as it’s been portrayed in much of the press? Maybe not a total one, but it’s certainly made KFC and even Oprah look a little yellow around the edges.

As Eaton admits in his video, the company obviously had no conception of how powerful linking Oprah’s name to this coupon offer would be. But that’s an explanation without justification. They should have known. Add the endorsement abilities of someone like Oprah (strike that–there is no one like Oprah for pushing products since Michael Jordan retired) to the viral power of the Internet’s social media and you’ve got one explosive combination. And when a promotion fueled by that kind of star power goes wrong, it’s going to go way off course.

Compare the promotion to “UNFry Day”, a freebie giveaway on Monday, April 27, when the chain reportedly handed out 4 million pieces of its new grilled item in a shorter time—one day—without any shortages or reports of police action. Not even any notable complaints from people who like grilled thighs but only got wings.

Other factors were also different: a slightly more generous offer, the use of the coupon, the need to go to a central Web site. But a large amount of the blame for this misfire has to go to supercharging the promotion with a strong Oprah link but then failing to conceive how radically that would change the scale of the campaign.

Oprah herself is catching some flak for the promotional dust-up, at least in places other than the comment section on her show’s Web site (where, interestingly, she’s getting credit for the free food and KFC’s getting a grilling for the problems.) But bloggers, commenters and tweeters elsewhere have questioned the healthfulness of her food choice, chastised her apparent turnaround from past support of animal rights causes, and even suggested that her best involvement with KFC might have been to donate chicken meals to homeless groups or needy families. (That might not have hurt KFC’s purposes, either. Still might be a good idea, in fact, Mr. Eaton.)

The KFC flap seems to have had one failure in common with other free-food fiascos of the recent past: poor communications of intentions and goals with franchisees. That means not only not nailing the logistics and getting the supplies out that the stores needed. It may also mean solving the same problems with franchisee compensation that caused issues in Quizno’s Million Sub Giveaway earlier this year.

These owners get recompensed for free-food giveaways and discount deals, but the rates can differ widely among chains. And some blog posts and comments have reported that franchisee buy-in to this offer was damped down by franchisee unwillingness to accept losses from the coupon offer. Some reportedly tried to limit the giveaway offer to low-traffic hours, while others apparently set their own limits for free food and refused to honor the coupons after those were reached. Some got into fights with customers about coupon counterfeiting.

I’m still trying to unearth what operator compensation rates might have been for the KFC deal (and if anyone knows, I’d appreciate learning about them.) But the fact is that these free promotions rely for execution on the performance of a lot of operators who are not strictly part of the company—they’re more like affiliates. If the company chooses to run a campaign they don’t like, they’re going to find a way to make it fit their needs.



That means less than nothing to consumers, especially when free food is involved; but it should mean everything to chains looking to run a freebie promotion. Without deep-down, sincere cooperation from not just most franchisees but the large majority of them, any promotion is only going to wind up confusing and irking consumers. Get those franchise relations in order, work out any compensation issues you may have, and for Pete’s sake, get ‘em enough food, so even the franchisees who back the campaign don’t find themselves with empty larders.

The upshot of all this? It could still fall into the win column for KFC. Reports have it that they tripled their in-store traffic during the days before the promotion was cancelled. It remains to be seen whether the portion of that traffic that left without two grilled chicken pieces come back, get their rain check form, mail it in, and then use it to taste the new menu when it arrives.

It probably would have been easier if people could claim their rain checks on the Web. But if making them come in averts the problem of rain-check fraud, it’s probably worth the added inconvenience to the customer. Nothing could be worse than following one fiasco with another.

On the disaster recovery front, KFC also probably came off pretty well. Once problems with the promotion became evident, they responded in force and in the same channels where it all started—with Eaton’s mea culpa on Oprah and with the online video.

His online performance even benefited by comparison with the screen presence of another recent CEO apologist, Domino’s USA’s Patrick Doyle reassuring viewers that most of his company’s employees don’t sneeze on the toasted sandwiches. As one commenter said of Eaton, “At least he looked at the camera.”

But YouTube giveth, and YouTube taketh away. Search the video site for “Roger Eaton” and you’ll find the CEO’s video, which has gotten more than 200,000 views to date. Right above it, some spoofer has produced another video, labeled “KFC President Roger Eaton Update Discussing Free Kentucky Grilled Chicken,” that among other things suggest the police will be coming for illicit coupon users and that KFC’s new item is actually kangaroo meat.



So far the faux Roger Eaton has only gotten about 800 views. But let’s see if the viral power of the Internet can’t change that.

It used to be that “free” was a dirty word in e-mail promotions, because it would get your message flagged as spam by ISP filters. Turns out that actually giving something away for free—or even for an extremely reduced price—is getting to be a very tricky proposition in the real world, too.

And when it’s food, the problems multiply exponentially.

Case in point: KFC’s Oprah-gate experience last week.

In case you missed it—a slim likelihood, given the Winfrey factor—here’s the outline of what happened.

As part of the UNThink campaign to introduce its new grilled chicken menu to the world, KFC managed to get Oprah Winfrey to announce to her TV audience that her show’s Web site, http://www.Oprah.com, would let visitors download a printable coupon for a free two-piece meal of Kentucky Grilled Chicken, plus two sides and a biscuit.

Catch One: The coupon was only available on the site during a 36-hour window, although it was redeemable at participating KFC stores until May 19 or “while supplies last.” Catch Two: The coupons were not valid on May 10, Mothers Day. And Catch Three: Users had to download a specific application to print it, and were reportedly supposed to be able to print out only four coupons, redeeming one offer per coupon and one coupon per person.

That’s the deal, and on one basic level, it seemed to work. Within two days, participating KFC stores had given away 4.5 million meals. Unfortunately, they had 10.5 million coupon downloads from the site, leaving a substantial number of patrons who wanted their two-piece meals but weren’t able to get them. As in, the stores ran out of grilled chicken.

It gets worse. First, while the servers distributing the downloadable coupon to Oprah’s site never crashed, they did slow considerably under the weight of that much download traffic. That frustrated would-be customers. At least some of them hit up friends and relations for coupons and may in fact have received photocopies, which were designed not to work with the in-store scanners. Uh-oh. More frustration potential.

Here the story gets a bit fuzzy, thanks to that magnificent echo chamber, the Internet. People started reporting in blogs and on Twitter that they were being turned away by store managers who’d run out of product. People also started reporting that some managers were refusing to honor the free-meal-deal without an additional purchase. In some cases, people were reporting that some stores simply said they weren’t honoring the coupons. This might be because not all franchisees were participating in either the promotion or the grilled menu.

Rumors began spreading that customers were rioting and that police were cordoning off stores. At least one customer protest may have involved a sit-in.. Sorry about all the conditional details, but the Web favors strong statements, not verified truths, and calls to KFC and others involved in the campaign have not been returned at press time.

Here’s what’s undeniable: On Thursday May 7, KFC chairman Roger Eaton posted a video message to the KFC.com Web site and also on YouTube explaining in upbeat terms that due to an unexpectedly enthusiastic public response to the offer, KFC would not be able to redeem the coupons still at large in the way it had planned. Rather, customers should go to their local KFC outlet and get a rain check, which will still be redeemable for a free two-piece grilled meal, with a free Pepsi thrown in as a deal sweetener.



On May 8, Eaton went onto Oprah’s show and made his apologies before a live audience.

So is this a PR disaster, as it’s been portrayed in much of the press? Maybe not a total one, but it’s certainly made KFC and even Oprah look a little yellow around the edges.

As Eaton admits in his video, the company obviously had no conception of how powerful linking Oprah’s name to this coupon offer would be. But that’s an explanation without justification. They should have known. Add the endorsement abilities of someone like Oprah (strike that–there is no one like Oprah for pushing products since Michael Jordan retired) to the viral power of the Internet’s social media and you’ve got one explosive combination. And when a promotion fueled by that kind of star power goes wrong, it’s going to go way off course.

Compare the promotion to “UNFry Day”, a freebie giveaway on Monday, April 27, when the chain reportedly handed out 4 million pieces of its new grilled item in a shorter time—one day—without any shortages or reports of police action. Not even any notable complaints from people who like grilled thighs but only got wings.

Other factors were also different: a slightly more generous offer, the use of the coupon, the need to go to a central Web site. But a large amount of the blame for this misfire has to go to supercharging the promotion with a strong Oprah link but then failing to conceive how radically that would change the scale of the campaign.

Oprah herself is catching some flak for the promotional dust-up, at least in places other than the comment section on her show’s Web site (where, interestingly, she’s getting credit for the free food and KFC’s getting a grilling for the problems.) But bloggers, commenters and tweeters elsewhere have questioned the healthfulness of her food choice, chastised her apparent turnaround from past support of animal rights causes, and even suggested that her best involvement with KFC might have been to donate chicken meals to homeless groups or needy families. (That might not have hurt KFC’s purposes, either. Still might be a good idea, in fact, Mr. Eaton.)

The KFC flap seems to have had one failure in common with other free-food fiascos of the recent past: poor communications of intentions and goals with franchisees. That means not only not nailing the logistics and getting the supplies out that the stores needed. It may also mean solving the same problems with franchisee compensation that caused issues in Quizno’s Million Sub Giveaway earlier this year.

These owners get recompensed for free-food giveaways and discount deals, but the rates can differ widely among chains. And some blog posts and comments have reported that franchisee buy-in to this offer was damped down by franchisee unwillingness to accept losses from the coupon offer. Some reportedly tried to limit the giveaway offer to low-traffic hours, while others apparently set their own limits for free food and refused to honor the coupons after those were reached. Some got into fights with customers about coupon counterfeiting.

I’m still trying to unearth what operator compensation rates might have been for the KFC deal (and if anyone knows, I’d appreciate learning about them.) But the fact is that these free promotions rely for execution on the performance of a lot of operators who are not strictly part of the company—they’re more like affiliates. If the company chooses to run a campaign they don’t like, they’re going to find a way to make it fit their needs.



That means less than nothing to consumers, especially when free food is involved; but it should mean everything to chains looking to run a freebie promotion. Without deep-down, sincere cooperation from not just most franchisees but the large majority of them, any promotion is only going to wind up confusing and irking consumers. Get those franchise relations in order, work out any compensation issues you may have, and for Pete’s sake, get ‘em enough food, so even the franchisees who back the campaign don’t find themselves with empty larders.

The upshot of all this? It could still fall into the win column for KFC. Reports have it that they tripled their in-store traffic during the days before the promotion was cancelled. It remains to be seen whether the portion of that traffic that left without two grilled chicken pieces come back, get their rain check form, mail it in, and then use it to taste the new menu when it arrives.

It probably would have been easier if people could claim their rain checks on the Web. But if making them come in averts the problem of rain-check fraud, it’s probably worth the added inconvenience to the customer. Nothing could be worse than following one fiasco with another.

On the disaster recovery front, KFC also probably came off pretty well. Once problems with the promotion became evident, they responded in force and in the same channels where it all started—with Eaton’s mea culpa on Oprah and with the online video.

His online performance even benefited by comparison with the screen presence of another recent CEO apologist, Domino’s USA’s Patrick Doyle reassuring viewers that most of his company’s employees don’t sneeze on the toasted sandwiches. As one commenter said of Eaton, “At least he looked at the camera.”

But YouTube giveth, and YouTube taketh away. Search the video site for “Roger Eaton” and you’ll find the CEO’s video, which has gotten more than 200,000 views to date. Right above it, some spoofer has produced another video, labeled “KFC President Roger Eaton Update Discussing Free Kentucky Grilled Chicken,” that among other things suggest the police will be coming for illicit coupon users and that KFC’s new item is actually kangaroo meat.



So far the faux Roger Eaton has only gotten about 800 views. But let’s see if the viral power of the Internet can’t change that.