KFC SG fires up CNY with Lady Huat, new merch and mala heat

KFC Singapore has kicked off Chinese New Year 2026 with a character-led social campaign, anchoring its festive push on Lady Huat, a fiery on-screen mystic designed to turn product consumption into ritualised content.

Rolled out across Instagram from mid-January, the campaign unfolds through a series of short-form videos introducing Lady Huat as a guide to “huat your mouth” for the year ahead. Each video pairs a specific aspiration, from career prosperity to romance, with a performative greeting and a bite of KFC’s La Zi Ji (‘Sichuan mala chicken’) crunch and bites, positioning the act as a symbolic cleanse of bad juju.

Rather than a single hero film, the brand has opted for episodic storytelling, encouraging repeat viewing and participation across the festive period. Captions lean heavily into CNY vernacular, blending mala heat metaphors with auspicious language and ritual cues, while reinforcing Lady Huat as a recurring character who “drops bite-sized rituals” throughout the season.

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Beyond social content, the campaign extends into collectibles with the introduction of "Huat paws", a series of Fortune Cat blind boxes available with purchase. The five designs, including a secret ‘Gold Fortune Cat’, tap into blind box culture while aligning with traditional CNY symbolism around luck and wealth.

Each figurine comes with a modular jigsaw base, encouraging collection and display, while a social mechanic invites fans who uncover the secret design to post on Instagram or Facebook for a chance to win SG$888. Ten winners will be selected, with results unveiled in March.

KFC has also layered in other festive touchpoints through limited-edition Huat socks and red packets. The socks are available as an add-on with breakfast purchases or delivery orders, while the red packets are given out with selected La Zi Ji boxes, reinforcing the campaign’s presence in both physical and at-home celebrations.

Product-wise, the campaign marks the debut of KFC Singapore’s first-ever La Zi Ji, offered in both bone-in crunch and bite-sized formats. The festive menu is supported by mala lotus root chips, a mango pomelo sago pie, and a range of CNY sharing buckets and feasts, all wrapped in prosperity-led naming and packaging.

Taken together, the execution shows KFC leaning into rituals, collectability and serialised social storytelling to keep its Chinese New Year campaign culturally sticky, with the product playing a supporting role rather than the opening act.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out for more information. 

The Chinese New Year campaign follows KFC Singapore’s recent push into immersive, experience-led marketing. In November last year, the brand launched its “Chikin land” Christmas campaign, transforming five outlets into anime-inspired, Japan-themed destinations designed to tap into festive travel sentiment while offering a local, crowd-free alternative.

Supported by an anime-style short film and social media activations, the campaign blended in-store décor, interactive stamp stations and limited-edition merchandise with a Japanese-themed menu. It marked KFC Singapore’s first Christmas campaign built around a country-led narrative, signalling a broader shift towards pop culture-driven storytelling and multi-sensory brand experiences.

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