Each year KFC awards 75 scholarships with their Colonel's Scholars Program. Normally, they just require a good ole essay.This year they decided to jump on the social media band wagon by awarding a twenty thousand dollar scholarship based solely on a single tweet. Students had just 140 characters to convince KFC executives why they deserved a scholarship.
The campaign generated more than 1,000 media placements and tens of millions of media impressions. They also generated more then 9 million twitter followers during the brief entry period. 17 year old, Amanda Russel, whose tweet " Hey Colonel! Your scholarships the secret ingredient ingredient missing from my recipe for success! Got the grades, drive, just need cash!" scored her the 20,000 scholarship.
In just 2 weeks, the KFC account saw a 20% increase in followers. This just proves social sites such as Twitter is becoming one of the top ways for marketers to promote their businesses and drive engagement with consumers. Twitter not only helped KFC generate good press, but it helped generate good press about their good press! People retweeted this story like crazy. This scholarship was not "openly" advertised, yet over 2800 students knew about it and applied. A "non-marketed" campaign probably would have failed in years past before social media, but now social media marketing makes it possible to quickly generate publicity.
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