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KFC India recently gave its popular offering Rice Bowl an upgrade to make a new launch KFC Biryani Bucket with a quirky TVC campaign featuring actor Piyush Mishra. Moksh Chopra, Chief Marketing Officer, KFC India, shares that while the Rice Bowl has been a much-loved offering for consumers, this new innovation has been done in line with changing consumer preferences and demands for KFC. Chopra further shares the insights behind the new launch, the conceptualization and execution of the TVC campaign, new innovations, marketing strategy, retail footprint expansion and more.

Edited Excerpts

How do you ensure regular product innovation in line with changing consumer preferences? What are some key product innovations you are focusing on?

Innovation, while being distinctive, is at the core of what we do. Keeping up with the latest trends and consumer preferences, we continue to deliver craving products that are clutter-breaking and distinctively KFC, like the Tandoori Zinger, Double Down or Chizza, and now our latest offering - the KFC Biryani Bucket. Our endeavour is to design products that deliver familiar flavours to our consumers, but with a KFC twist.

Please tell us the consumer insight and inspiration behind the launch of the new Biryani Bucket.

We launched the KFC Biryani Bucket on popular consumer demand. Its a well-known fact that Indians love biryani; weve had consumers often wonder, ask, and suggest a Biryani variation on our menu to allow them to have both their favourites in one delicious meal at KFC. So we explored various recipes of chicken biryani and arrived at one that pairs best with the signature KFC chicken. The KFC Biryani Bucket brings together two dynamic flavours that Indians absolutely love KFCs signature fried chicken and flavourful Biryani rice. Keeping our ears to the ground and being attentive to our consumers preferences, we continue to expand our menu through interesting formats and flavours.

Walk us through the conceptualization and the execution process of the TVC campaign. In terms of response, what are the metrics that you are expecting?

As the leader in the fried chicken category, clearly, our consumers had been wanting to see our take on Biryani and thats exactly the concept we decided to develop for the campaign film around the product. We decided to say it like it is, and hence in the film you see the Colonel being pursued with the question of Biryani kab banaoge?. This is as authentic a treatment of the actual thought behind the product, from the laughter club, elevator to the tailor, everyone wanting to know when will the Colonel make a KFC Biryani. Thats when the Colonel resolves to design the biryani of everyones dreams and proudly holds up the KFC Biryani Bucket because KFC fans wanted it, and he made it happen.

The film went live on TV and digital and has received great traction so far. Consumer comments and feedback on our social channels, clearly show how KFC fans are enjoying both the long-awaited Biryani, as well as the candid TVC campaign.

Actor Piyush Mishra is part of the new campaign, so what are the synergies here?

Given the quirky concept of the TVC with consumers chasing the Colonel around town, we were looking for someone to aptly personify our consumers excitement as they asked the Colonel for a biryani. While we werent actively seeking a celebrity or a popular face, Piyush Mishra became an obvious choice given the ability to deliver a performance marked by his typical straight-faced humour. Who else could put the Colonel in a spot while asking about the biryani in the midst of a fit of laughter at a club? It all came together very well, and the Colonels chemistry with the actor is very evident and enjoyable in the TVC.

What are the challenges when updating and removing items from the menu? Krushers is no longer part of the menu?

We are committed to bringing new and distinct offerings to our consumers at KFC, and that is why our menu is ever-evolving. A lot of these changes depend on changing tastes and preferences, consumer demand and our market research. Ultimately, the goal is to make KFC more enjoyable for our consumers in line with their food preferences and to give them more options to choose from. As part of our beverage offering, consumers can enjoy Krush Lime and Mojito.

What is the media mix and marketing strategy that you are adopting for promoting the new launch? How different is it going to be your overall media mix?

We have always taken an innovative and out-of-the-box approach to talk to our consumers with integrated campaigns with a fair mix allocated to traditional and digital media. Our media mix includes traditional mediums like TV, Outdoors and Print; along with Digital & Social which form a major part of our media strategy. We use digital and social in 3 different ways. Firstly, for reach amplification of product and campaign. Secondly, its unique capability to create two-way engagement is something we use through social media, influencer collaborations and content. Consumers are also increasingly preferring to order KFC digitally on the KFC App, which is a third primary pillar.

What per cent of your sales comes from digital channels vs offline retail? Any plans for expanding your retail footprint?

A large percentage of our sales continue to come from delivery, takeaway (including our newly launched channel, Express Pick-Up, and a large chunk of this is coming from digital channels including our website and app).

We currently have 600+ restaurants in India, including expanding our footprint into cities such as Malda, Muzaffarpur, Bellary and Bhagalpur. Going forward, the focus will be to push further growth in the Indian market and widen our reach by expanding across tier 2 and 3 cities. We will continue to have a play through a mix of both equity and franchise-owned restaurants and fuel our long-term plan of growth and expansion in the country.

In an earlier interaction, you had mentioned thatKFCis observing a steady growth rate. Are your offline retail numbers back to pre-covid levels?

Despite Covid making it tough for restaurants to function at pre-covid levels, weve seen robust growth last year. We were agile in adapting to covid restrictions and working around them. Different channels such as contactless service, KFC to your Car/Bike service and KFCs 7 minutes Express PickUp helped in extending access to our consumers through the pandemic. And now as normalcy resumes, we are witnessing an increase in footfalls at our restaurants as well.

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Innovation, while being distinctive, is at the core of what we do: Moksh Chopra, KFC - Exchange4Media

The euphoria around the Indian Premier League (IPL) is unmissable. In the previous edition, the league amassed over 450 million in TV reach in a short span of just two months. As an exciting season of TATA IPL begins with a new format, new teams and more matches, we spoke to Vineet Sharma Category Director for Sting and Mountain Dew at PepsiCo, on why Sting energy drink chose to associate as a broadcast sponsor.

Sharing his thoughts on this association, Sharma said the youth was at the core of their brand strategy and they always looked for innovative platforms to engage with them, and TATA IPL was the only platform that offered them a deeper connect with the youth.

Cricket is a unifying force that touches the hearts of millions of Indians and leveraging this passion is critical for us to be relevant to the consumers. Through Stings association, we want to take this opportunity to create awareness and spread Stings philosophy of can-do attitude to seize the day that resonates unequivocally with the youth and with the game, said Sharma.

He further added, Cricket truly reflects the Can-do energy which synchronizes with Stings proposition of electrifying each moment. Sting encourages consumers to always maximize each moment of their life with electrifying energy and our association with the much anticipated.

Over the years IPL on TV has managed to get the largest aggregation of audiences in India, including high viewership among youth. With the league this year having 74 matches as against 60 matches previously, and with seven out of ten franchises appointing young captains to represent the team, the resonance with youth is bound to cement further.

PepsiCos new brand Sting is aiming to leverage this. This is visible in the way Sharma talks about the rationale behind this association. Through this association, we aim to expand brand footprints to a broader and more diverse set of audiences. The association will help establish Stings brand proposition of energizing India and it also echoes with the electrifying thrill of the game, he explains. Not just the expanse in terms of footprint, IPL on broadcast also dominates ad attention with 1.6x higher attention than other content genres on TV as a result of the highly passionate nature of viewing.

The two new teams Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants are representing massive TV and consumer markets. The inclusion of these two teams have given a big boost to brands associating on broadcast. The state of UP and Gujarat have contributed to 17% of IPL viewership on TV in the past editions, and are among the top 5 consumer markets in India. With a dedicated IPL team now for each state, this engagement is bound to deliver higher numbers.

Sting currently enjoys considerable engagement and recall within the regional audiences, given its creative localized narratives and wide reach through the impetus on digital-forward communication approach. Both UP and Gujarat are key markets, this opportunity enables us to further expand our brand footprint and deepen engagement with the audience. We are confident that our campaign will resonate well with the audience, shared Sharma.

PepsiCo has historically leveraged sports globally as a vehicle to drive brand awareness and impact through Superbowl, Football Mega Events and Cricket. When asked how this long-term association with sports on TV has helped in brand building and brand recall, Sharma admitted that the sports genre delivered on scale and impact unlike other genres.

PepsiCo India has always innovated and communicated with consumers through the passion points relevant to them - cricket being one of the key passion points for todays generation. We have always had a quirky, tongue-in-cheek take on pop culture moments. Brands need to have the right mix to be able to communicate with their audiences with snackable content, and entertaining visuals. Mega platforms like cricket, Bollywood, etc fulfil this very requirement and help brands create impactful connect and strengthen engagement with consumers, he concluded.

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Why is TATA IPL association on broadcast a great proposition for energy drink brand Sting? - Exchange4Media

Ever wondered why your credit score is what it is? Have you stored private information in the cloud that you want to remain that way? Thought about investing in cryptocurrency? Worried about cyber warfare?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, quantum computing plays a role in your lifeor at least, it will when its usage becomes practical enough to run the systems that run our daily lives.

Thats where Ryan Behunins work comes in.

Behunin, an assistant professor of applied physics and materials science and a researcher in NAUs Center for Materials Interfaces in Research & Applications (MIRA!), explores fundamental questions about the interaction of light, sound and matter. His latest research project, Controlling noise in quantum devices with light and sound, was funded with an almost $500,000 NSF CAREER grant, which supports early-career faculty in their groundbreaking research.

This work targets challenges to realizing practical quantum computers by helping the building blocks of quantum computers, termed qubits, perform better. That is critical because quantum computers have the potential to solve certain problems that are not tractable using traditional computing technology. The challenge is that, currently, the technology is too vulnerable to disturbances in the environment that corrupt the information stored in quantum computerstoo full of noise, as it wereto reach its full potential.

Behunins goal is to quiet that noise.

Theoretically, quantum physics can enable powerful new computers that achieve massive exponential speedups over traditional forms of computing, permitting calculations that currently are intractable Behunin said. Practically, however, the very quantumfeatures that enable these remarkable properties are rapidly erased by process termed decoherence, which is not unlike the way a plucked guitar string eventually relaxes.

As a result, decoherence limits the lifetime of quantum states, posing challenges for practical quantum technologies. This project will show how decoherence can be controlled by manipulating sound waves.

Noise in quantum mechanics operates much like static on the radio, making it difficult to hear the signal. The most problematic source of noise for many quantum devices is from two-level tunneling states, or TLSs. Theyre not well understood, but they are everywhere, and physicists have yet to find an effective way to quiet TLSs. This research will leverage the strong interaction between TLSs and sound waves to develop new techniques that control and reduce this source of noise.

The answers Behunin is looking for have implications for cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing and areas like drug development; faster, more accessible quantum computing could mean faster and more affordable creation of drugs or other organic materials.

We can take a big step toward practical quantum technology if we can show how noise can be controlled and reduced in quantum devices, Behunin said.

This project also will focus on giving research opportunities to students from populations that are historically underrepresented in the field of physics, including women and minority groups. In addition to its groundbreaking research, MIRA!s mission is to increase diversity in these fields. Recruiting students into labs like Behunins is a big part of that mission, as is outreach to K-12 students to get them excited about STEM research long before they enter college. Thats why part of this project includes Behunin teaching a free mini course on quantum physics at Tynkertopia, a nonprofit STEAM center located in Flagstaffs Sunnyside neighborhood.

Scientifically, were trying to answer deep materials science questionsnamely, what are TLSs and how can we get rid of them? Behunin said. With regard to diversity, this project aims to engage communities that are underrepresented in the sciences. The goal is to increase access and exposure to quantum science in our underserved communities.

Learn more about MIRA!.

Heidi Toth | NAU Communications(928) 523-8737 | heidi.toth@nau.edu

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How a physicist aims to reduce the noise in quantum computing The NAU Review - NAU News

SYDNEY, March 30, 2022 Q-CTRL, a global leader in developing useful quantum technologies, today announced a partnership with The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerlands largest research institute for natural and engineering sciences, to pioneer R&D in the scale-up of quantum computers. The strategic partnership will leverage Q-CTRL and PSIs combined expertise to deliver transformational capabilities to the broader research community.

This partnership builds on the collaboration of PSI and ETH Zurich, one of the worlds premier public research universities and a quantum science powerhouse, who formed the ETH Zurich PSI Quantum Computing Hub in May 2021 on PSIs campus in Villigen. Both are working to translate groundbreaking quantum computing research into building systems at scale. Theyve now partnered with Q-CTRL to provide the critical infrastructure software tools for system characterization, AI-based automation, and hardware optimization that are essential for large-scale quantum computing to become reality.

Q-CTRLs focus on solving the automation and performance challenges in large-scale quantum computing align perfectly with the PSI Quantum Computing Hubs mission, said Q-CTRL Founder and CEO Professor Michael J. Biercuk. Were honored to partner with the exceptional engineers and researchers at PSI to combine their system engineering prowess with infrastructure software to truly move the research field forward.

As PSI seeks to scale up quantum hardware, Q-CTRLs unique expertise in quantum control and AI-based automation makes the company a natural fit to help accelerate the pathway to the first useful quantum computers. Both teams have extensive experience in quantum computing based on trapped ions, including specialized approaches in error correction leveraging the unique properties of trapped ions. Together, PSI and Q-CTRL will aim to solve the critical challenges enabling large-scale, quantum-error-corrected quantum computing to become a reality.

Q-CTRLs hardware agnostic, yet hardware-aware tools will be very valuable in finding optimal control solutions that ensure uniform performance across larger qubit arrays, said Dr. Cornelius Hempel, Group head, Ion Trap Quantum Computing, Paul Scherrer Institute. As we go to larger and larger machines and continuous operation of testbeds, efficient and automated tuneup and calibration procedures become an essential aspect of day-to-day operations its just not possible to continue using brute-force approaches at scale. Our team is very excited to leverage the tools the Q-CTRL team has developed in this space.

The computational power of quantum computing is expected to deliver transformational capabilities in applications ranging from drug discovery and enterprise logistics to finance. However, the underlying hardware is extremely unstable and fragile, hampering these machines from reaching their full potential. Q-CTRL is focused on delivering hardware-agnostic and fully automated error-suppressing enterprise software that will enable useful quantum computing for organizations around the world. Its team was recently awarded a US SBIR grant from the Department of Energy focused on quantum computer automation, and this partnership will build on those research developments.

To learn more about Q-CTRL, please visit: q-ctrl.com.

About Q-CTRL

Q-CTRL is building the quantum technology industry by overcoming the fundamental challenge in the field hardware error and instability. Q-CTRLs quantum control infrastructure software for R&D professionals and quantum computing end users delivers the highest performance error-correcting and suppressing techniques globally, and provides a unique capability accelerating the pathway to the first useful quantum computers. This foundational technology also applies to a new generation of quantum sensors, and enables Q-CTRL to shape and underpin every application of quantum technology.

Q-CTRL has assembled the worlds foremost team of expert quantum-control engineers, providing solutions to many of the most advanced quantum computing and sensing teams globally. Q-CTRL has been an inaugural member of the IBM Quantum Startup network since 2018, and recently announced a partnership with Transport for NSW, delivering its enterprise infrastructure software to transport data scientists exploring quantum computing. Q-CTRL is funded by SquarePeg Capital, Sierra Ventures, Sequoia Capital China, Data Collective, Horizons Ventures, Main Sequence Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Airbus Ventures, and Ridgeline Partners. The company has international headquarters in Sydney, Los Angeles, and Berlin.

About PSI

The Paul Scherrer Institute PSI is the largest research institute for natural and engineering sciences in Switzerland, conducting cutting-edge research in three main fields: matter and materials, energy and the environment and human health. PSI develops, builds and operates complex large research facilities such as the synchrotron Swiss Light Source (SLS), the free-electron X-ray laser SwissFEL and the SINQ neutron source. PSI employs 2100 people and is primarily financed by the Swiss Confederation. The institution provides access to its large research facilities via a User Service to researchers from universities, other research centers and industry.

Source: Q-CTRL

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Q-CTRL Partners with The Paul Scherrer Institute to Support the Scale-Up of Quantum Computers - HPCwire

While Im convinced 2011 will ultimately go down in history as the year the groundbreaking motion picture Cowboys & Aliens was released, it bears mentioning that it was also the year in which the first commercial quantum computer officially went online.

You can dispute whether Daniel Craigs turn as an alien-fighting gold thief with amnesia is worthy of such high praise, but theres no debating that D-Waves a bonafide pioneer in the world of quantum computing.

Dubbed the D-Wave One (two years before the Xbox One gaming system came out), the companys first production model was a quantum annealing system designed to attack optimization problems.

Over a decade later, the company is working on the Advantage Two. Not counting prototypes, itll be the outfits sixth major quantum computing system.

Advantage Two will be a quantum-annealing system featuring a whopping 7,000 functioning qubits.

For folks whove followed quantum computing news, that 7,000 functioning qubits figure might look like a typo. The largest gate-based model were aware of is QuEras 256-qubit neutral atom system.

But D-Waves system uses a different technology.

As Rebel Brown, a marketer whose blog I found at random, explains quite eloquently:

One way to understand the difference between the two types of quantum computer is that the gate model quantum computers require problems to be expressed in terms of quantum gates, and the quantum annealing computer requires problems to be expressed in the language of operations research problems.

But dont just take Browns word for it. The two kinds of quantum computers are as different as night and day. Where gate-based models are still more research than function, D-Waves annealing systems have been solving problems for decades.

As Murray Thom, VP of product management for D-Wave, put it in a recent interview with Neural:

Our focus is 100% on commercial use-cases and bringing value to our customers.

And that means using quantum computers to provide solutions right now. Quantum annealing does that because, as Thom told us, its really the only way to approach optimization problems.

However there are more than just optimization problems out there that need solving. Advantage Two should be able to, for example, help medical facilities optimize nurse and physician schedules across massive geographic areas during disasters and outbreaks.

But it wont be as useful as a gate-based quantum computer when it comes to running quantum simulations for challenging problems such as drug discovery.

Ideally, youd be able to use both. But gate-based systems are experimental at best. Until recently, with the launch of its Clarity Roadmap, D-Waves been content to be a quantum-annealing company in the streets and a cutting-edge research org in the lab.

That all changed last year when D-Wave unveiled its ambitions to combine gate-based technologies with annealing systems using cloud-based portals and tailored software solutions.

Thom told us that D-Wave is convinced that the time is now. Not just for its own stockholders (the companys in the process of going public) but for the entire industry.

According to Thom:

From 2017-2018 to now there has been this explosion in quantum computing tools and getting people access to them. This next phase is going to be the rapid expansion point.

The quantum computing market is expected to triple in the next three years. While theres certainly room for everyone, not all market shares are created equal.

D-Waves already secured its position as the front-runner in quantum optimization solutions. The addition of gate-based systems through separate or integrated stacks could potentially provide its customers with the worlds only one-stop shop for spooky-action-at-a-distance-as-a-service.

Neurals take: Itll be interesting to see if D-Waves ambitions and experience can overcome Googles hunger and bankroll or IBMs sheer tenacity when it comes to pressing an advantage in the field.

At the end of the day, a rising tide lifts all vessels. Were probably further away from quantum computing companies competing for clients than we are from useful gate-based systems. For now at least, theres plenty of quantum problems to go around.

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D-Wave's cross platform quantum services are bridge to the future - The Next Web