Dabbawallahs have been serving hungry Mumbaikars with admirable regularity for ages. But when they showed up at their clients’ doorsteps with KFC’s 5-in-1 meal boxes along with the regular dabbas, the joy was clearly visible on the latter’s faces. That joy was what KFC was targeting with its new TVC, asking food lovers not to settle for ‘regular QSR meals’ but instead opt for its meal box, available at ₹149.

“Our insight was that people often tend to settle for less in the name of affordability; we flipped this over to say you do not need to compromise or settle any more,” says Lluis Ruiz Ribot, chief marketing officer, KFC India. For its latest campaign, KFC seems to have drawn inspiration from the way Indians eat their meals, with multiple items, flavours, textures — all on one plate. KFC’s meal box thus includes five items: rice and gravy, hot and crispy chicken, hot wings, Pepsi and Choco Pie. A Zinger burger variant is also available.

In the run up to the launch, KFC had also executed a digital campaign through the KFC ‘Crack The Code’ micro website. Here, consumers could unlock a mystery box to win VIP access to the meal box. Ribot says the website saw over 12 million impressions, over 65,000 registrations and a million entries to unlock the mystery box. “This, coupled with the special delivery by the dabbawallahs, has ensured that this campaign has broken away from predictable paths,” quips Ribot.