Bauer Media hosted a session at AdWanted’s Future of Media London event, about the innovative community driven partnership between KFC UK&I and KISS.

KISS presenter Tyler West—who helped bring the campaign to life on his drivetime show—  joined Danielle Ruggles, Brand Fame & Trust Lead at KFC UK&I, Rebecca Frank, Content Director at KISS, and Krissie Ford, Group Client Director at Bauer Media. Together, they highlighted how the partnership goes beyond traditional radio spots and media sponsorships to challenge perceptions, build trust, and push creative boundaries.

The campaign saw KFC and KISS team up to support young people and their futures, building on the fantastic work KFC is doing through its community impact programmes, working with Hatch, the KFC Youth Foundation, and its food donation programme in partnership with FareShare. Danielle remarked, it’s “important that we tell these stories”, adding that working with KISS makes it “authentic but also entertaining… it needs to be something people want to watch otherwise it’s not going to land”.

With the partnership in its fourth year, Tyler asked Krissie what it is about radio that fosters long successful partnerships, with Krissie replying “at Bauer it’s all content, it’s not commercial… we set out from the beginning that in order to do this right, we needed to be honest and have those difficult conversations with each other”. She also added that radio provides the “agility and flexibility” that’s crucial for ensuring sensitive content is handled with care, particularly when working with contributors from KFC’s community support programmes.

As Tyler wrapped up the session, he asked about the results from the campaign with Danielle expanding that “whilst it’s great to talk about the power of the partnership’, the results also speak for themselves. Adding that “after just a couple of months, the campaign saw a massive increase in public perception of the brand which, a key objective of the campaign which also ties in with an increase in consideration too”.

The partnership shows how radio can drive good in local communities, whilst changing perceptions, building trust, and delivering business outcomes. Proving, with the right ingredients, you can cook up a great partnership.

You can catch Tyler and hear more from the KFC partnership every weekday from 4 to 7pm on KISS.