Missing out on the bustle of an airport to the joy of having your passport stamped at immigration, and posing against every iconic landmark at a new destination?

Fast food giant KFC's newly launched campaign 'The KFC Facaytion -- the ultimate travel hack for a vacay from home!' helps treat your taste buds with a food adventure and souvenirs for friends and family. Within all the necessary norms for staying safe and healthy, but without missing out on the fun of exploring a new holiday destination -- this exciting "holiday" experience helps recreate an international holiday at home complete with a VR experience, souvenirs and a tasty treat from the destination country's menu!

Excerpts from an interview with Moksh Chopra, Chief Marketing Officer, KFC India, to get all the details:

The new campaign brings favourite dishes from across the world; is it the perfect time to launch with home delivery being the new normal. Tell us more about the international menu.

Chopra: An integral part of any holiday is trying out new flavours and cuisines. To bring the same foodie experience to KFC fans in India, we decided to include some craveable and drool-worthy KFC favourites from our international menus, exclusively for this campaign. After all, if you cannot go on a holiday to Australia or Thailand, surely the flavour of that holiday could come to you; and that's exactly what we've tried to achieve with this campaign. Consumers got an opportunity to savour some signature KFC offerings from across the globe, as the Dirty Louisiana Burger from UK, Chicken and Waffles from USA, Ghost Pepper Chicken from Thailand and Zinger Mozzarella Burger from Australia. These were accompanied with a side of Spicy Fries and a beverage. The campaign, along with the food, has given consumers a aste' of an international holiday, well literally, and help bring down some of their holiday blues.

With months of lockdown people have tired of eating the same thing at home or ordering in the same dishes from their go to restaurant. Does the new, limited time menu aim to make impact?

Chopra: We handpicked some global favourites and brought them for our Facaytioners in India. These products only help enhance the holiday experience our consumers will get as part of the KFC Facaytion. Just as all good things come to an end, so do exciting holidays; these products are only available for a limited time as part of the Facaytion campaign.

Share with us the idea behind the campaign

Chopra: The ongoing pandemic situation has necessitated many changes - in the way we work and even in the way we holiday. While most travel & annual holiday plans have gone for a toss, with #MissingTravel and #ThrowBacks becoming the norm, we decided to do something about it and help our consumers with a holiday experience. I am sure we've all felt that strong urge to pack our bags and take off to exotic destinations; who would've thought we'll miss boarding an aircraft and perhaps even the seemingly mundane tasks of immigration that we once loathed. That's why we decided to bring an exciting holiday experience, in true KFC style, right into your homes. The experience comes with all things 'holiday' - replete with KFC flavors from across the world, a VR headset to sightsee virtually, a holiday tee to flaunt and knick knacks as magnets, stickers and more.

With a focus on hygiene and heightened awareness on the source of your food, how does KFC navigate the new trend?

Chopra: To offer an uninterrupted and safe experience even during the ongoing pandemic, we heightened our already stringent safety standards further by introducing the 4X Safety Promise - Screening, Social distancing, Sanitization & ContactLess - across platforms, to keep both our team members and customers safe. We modified the restaurant designs to reinforce social distancing, trained team members according to the new norms, and implemented measures like distanced seating arrangements, demarcated waiting spots in the queues, controlled customer inflow. We've also ensured accessibility through channels like ContactLess Delivery, ContactLess Takeaway and the �KFC to your Car & Bike' service - a first in India for any QSR brand. As we all learn our ways around the �new normal', campaigns as KFC Facaytion also give our consumers an opportunity to travel & holiday in the �new normal'.

With restaurants catering to trends like vegan and gluten-free, etc. how does a fast food chain like yours retain and keep growing its customer base?

Chopra: Nobody makes chicken like we do! Our consumers love the signature craveable taste of our chicken, and we at KFC are very passionate about providing our customers with the best tasting chicken every day. Everything that we do, from using 100 percent whole chicken, sourced from best-in-class suppliers, to making sure that every food item is freshly prepared in our restaurants with utmost care - makes our food so unique and distinctively KFC. Our menu also offers craveble vegetarian options such as the Veg Zinger Burger and the Veg Rice Bowl; and these offerings too are marked by the distinct KFC taste and promise of safety & hygiene.

Source - IANS