Zimbos love freebies! I have enough experience to state this as fact because whenever there’s a free game giveaway I usually write about that and I see some of your reactions. Recently, though something happened that further illustrates just how much Zimbos love free stuff.
An account popped up on Instagram, pretending to be an official KFC Zimbabwe account. The account’s description is what triggered Zimbos 6th sense -which is used for things like sniffing out a good deal and standing in queues even when you don’t know what’s on sale. The description read;
First 10000 people to follow our Zim account will get $500 to spend at a KFC.to. To enter, Follow, post a screenshot and tag us.
KFC ZW (aka fake KFC account)
I came across this account when it was around the 1000 follower mark and my thought was “who would believe this baloney?”. As it turns out, a lot of people actually did and in 2 days the account had over 10k followers and is now sitting at 10 500+ at the time of writing.
I dismissed it when I saw it because to me it didn’t make sense that KFC would spend ZW$5 million for followers on Instagram. Why?? How does that help them in the long term?
A fake Rainbow Towers account also popped up and promised to give a US$100 ticket to the first 20 000 followers. At the time of writing, it has 1500+ followers meaning people are getting tired of being used by fake accounts.
Is this a good viral marketing ploy for brands?
Many brands watching this may see this and think, “Wow that’s a fantastic way to hack our way to x amount of followers, let’s also try this.” Needless to say, it’s probably a terrible idea to build your brand on the back of a lie.
Also, it’s unnecessary because many other brands have grown communities organically. Chicken Hut is one such example for local brands. They have 13 000 followers on Instagram and they’ve gained those by posting humorous content that’s intricately linked to their brand. Yes, it’s taken them longer to get those 13 000 followers but their followership is organic and is the kind of following a company/brand should want.
If your brand is built on people who will follow for free stuff it’s arguable that if another competitor offers free vouchers for those who unfollow your brand, you will lose those followers overnight.
With all that said, can you guys please stop reposting that damn KFC account!
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