• by November 24, 2008

How do you top a holiday contest called "Festive Fanatics," where the "Most Festively Decorated Holiday Home" featured 45,000 lights synchronized to music?

 

 

If you're KFC, you follow up a year later by seeking "America's Most Original Holiday Tradition." The winning entry probably won't consist merely of "hanging homemade ornaments on the tree, dressing the family in matching holiday sweaters or decorating the yard in festive colors," as listed in the lead paragraph of KFC's press release announcing the promotion on Monday.

"At KFC we're all about families, and one of the Colonel's favorite occasions was gathering families 'round a good meal," says Javier Benito, executive vice president of marketing and food innovation. "This contest will celebrate the most original holiday family traditions and encourage families to start a few new ones with our new family meal option -- KFC's Two Originals Meal."

Priced at $14.99, the Two Originals Meal includes five pieces of Original Recipe Chicken, four Original Recipe Strips, two large home-style sides and four buttermilk biscuits.

In the new UGC-based promotion, consumers until Dec. 11 can go to http://www.kfc.com/traditions to either upload videos of their tradition to a special YouTube group or email photos and descriptions for posting on a Fickr group.

Then, 12 finalists will be chosen by a "panel of qualified judges" based 75% on "Originality and Creativity" and 25% on "Appropriateness to KFC Image." For five days, starting Dec. 15, visitors to ww.KFC.com will be able to vote on their favorites, this time based only on originality and creativity.

The winning entrant will receive $1,000 plus an additional $1,900 in KFC gift checks, which the company promises will buy a year's worth of the fast food fare. An additional 11 while 11 semi-finalists will receive $155 apiece in KFC gift checks -- or a month's worth of the chain's food.

The first day of KFC's Traditions contest on Monday was also the last day for consumers to enter its "KFC Rocks" "KFC Rocks" (https://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=93735) contest, which will award $2,500 and a year's supply of KFC Original Recipe Fully Loaded Box Meals to a winning "Guitar Hero" aficionado.

In last year's KFC holiday contest, 14,000 site visitors voted for the Holdman home in Pleasant Grove, Utah, with the winning family receiving payment for its December electric bill, and a year's supply of KFC's famous Kentucky Fried Chicken.