A bucket of ambition: Here Be Dragons and KFC

KFC’s fried chicken and ‘Chicken Wine’ are two popular internet obsessions, with the latter rising to prominence more recently.

To honour both, Here Be Dragons created Coq au Vin: a playful, pink-hued pop-up that recently took Shoreditch by storm.

This collision of fast food and lifestyle culture saw KFC join forces with La Vieille Ferme, turning a long-held ambition into a reality that blurs the lines between a cheeky chicken bucket and a curated wine bar experience.

Lee Sanders, Here Be Dragons' creative director, delves deeper into how this culturally-aware campaign got the internet talking.

So, Chicken Wine. How did this idea appear, and what sorts of conversations took place during the brainstorm?

When it came to KFC's next fame-driving idea, we started with a long-held client ambition. Opening a Chicken Wine bar had been on KFC's bucket list for over a year, so HBD and KFC worked together to turn that dream into a reality.

We'd been watching two really interesting trends collide: chicken and wine becoming the ultimate dinner-table pairing, and bottle shops becoming cultural hangouts rather than just places to buy a bottle.

The fun was in leaning into the ‘aha’ moment people were expecting, even if they didn’t know it. KFC is iconic fried chicken. La Vieille Ferme is affectionately known as the Chicken Wine. 

It felt like the internet had already made the introduction, and we just turned it into a real-world experience for fans.

From there, the conversations were all about embracing the delicious contradiction. How do you make finger-lickin' chicken feel at home in a wine bar? How do you honour the heritage of both brands while giving it a fresh, Gen Z twist? The answer was to celebrate the tension - premium but not pretentious, playful but credible, something people would want to taste and talk about...and PINK!

Is this your first experience working with KFC, and what was the experience like?

HBD’s first project was the launch of Pickle Puffer, when we became KFC’s retained agency! So we could not wait to put our ways of working into practice on a bigger scale.

Everything we do with KFC is rooted in our fame strategy: finding the fandoms and obsessions people already have and giving them something they can't help but talk about. Coq au Vin was a perfect example of that. KFC and La Vieille Ferme had this brilliant cultural overlap, and we worked together to turn that shared insight into an experience that felt playful, relevant and true to both brands.

It was a genuinely collaborative process from start to finish. KFC brought a really clear understanding of its brand and audience, La Vieille Ferme brought wine expertise, and together we built something that celebrated both worlds while creating the kind of cultural moment we always aim for.

How does KFC like to project itself as a brand, and how has this shifted?

This campaign reflects KFC's increasingly bold and culturally aware brand positioning. KFC leans into humour, internet culture, and unexpected collaborations that generate conversation.

The Coq au Vin partnership fits that approach perfectly. It takes something consumers were already joking about online and turns it into a premium-feeling but accessible experience. By opening a Shoreditch pop-up wine bar instead of launching another menu item, KFC positioned itself as a brand willing to blur the line between fast food and lifestyle experiences.

Was the campaign a success, and how did you measure this?

The campaign exceeded our expectations with tickets selling out in less than a week, which was a great sign that people were genuinely excited by the idea.

From a performance perspective, 221 pieces have now gone live! We surpassed several of our KPIs across trade, regional, social, consumer and broadcast coverage, with 113 social pieces. We've secured five national pieces so far, with journalists across a wide variety of titles attending the media and creator event.

Tell us about how the campaign went down logistically. Were outside agencies called in, freelancers, how did you choose the venue, etc?

Once KFC and La Vieille Ferme had landed on the core concept, we brought in production agency Niche Experience to build the world around it. This was the team behind KFC’s famous pub – The Colonel’s Arms – so we knew we were in good hands. Its role was to create a space where the playful collision of KFC and La Vieille Ferme felt effortless, weaving together the visual identity, creative assets and production details into a cohesive experience that made Coq au Vin feel both authentic and unexpected.

We chose Kachette Annex in Shoreditch because the space allowed the bar to sit at the heart of the experience. Rather than feeling like a branded pop-up, it became a social setting where guests naturally gathered over La Vieille Ferme wine before discovering KFC's playful take on Coq au Vin. The layout helped the two brands coexist seamlessly, turning the experience into somewhere guests really wanted to spend time – not just another brand activation.

From there, it was lots of collaborative detail work and ensuring we came up with a brand identity for Coq au Vin that really married both brands. Rounds of approvals on the logo and creative assets, designing the space, and one of the more enjoyable parts of the process: a chicken-and-wine tasting session. We tested different pairings to ensure each KFC favourite had the perfect La Vieille Ferme match.