KFC Arabia is celebrating 2.5 million fans in 5 years on Facebook. From an initial 11,000 fans recorded when it first started using the platform in 2009, the level of interactivity has risen exponentially, with the most recent count revealing 2.5 million fans on the KFC Arabia Facebook page.

From its initial tentative engagement with the medium, KFC Arabia’s Facebook page has grown into becoming the main forum for the brand to communicate with its customers.

It has been instrumental as a tool for creating the KFC SuperFan experience — a concept that involves the brand tying in its sponsorships of the popular reality TV offerings — Arab Idol, Arabs Got Talent and The Voice — with competitions that enable its most ardent fans to attend the live shows and be part of the backstage experience alongside the judges and competitors.

The brand recently added a SuperFan experience in its sponsorship of WWE, which will see customers given the opportunity to attend the WWE WrestleMania event that takes place in the United States in April.

KFC Arabia also has been proactive in using its Facebook page to gain valuable insight into its customers’ thoughts and sentiments about the brand. This has been made possible through the Talk-to-Us tab, an application that allows fans to post comments, voice concerns and even lobby for branch openings and enquire about job opportunities.

One example of KFC Arabia responding directly to customer feedback was the introduction of its campaign featuring Cristiano Ronaldo, which resulted in a significant increase in brand awareness for KFC and a subsequent sales increase of its products in the region by 15 percent. The brand cleverly played on the rivalry between fans of Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to generate traffic around its Facebook page, as the company had previously endorsed Messi in an earlier campaign.