On November 6th, 2019, Hector proposed to his girlfriend, Nonhlanhla at their favorite restaurant—the KFC in Vaal, Gauteng, South Africa. The romantic moment was captured on camera and posted to social media by an onlooker.

KFC, like South Africa itself, is famed for its Southern hospitality so we couldn’t let the story end there. This was an opportunity to do something special! But first, we had to track the couple down…Using the hashtag #KFCProposal, we engaged the whole country via social media, to track down the happy couple. It didn’t take long! Then, we made contact with the couple and offered them the ultimate in Southern Hospitality… a fairy-tale wedding of a lifetime—planned to their taste and paid for by KFC.

What happened next was incredible: with expert community management, the idea soon snowballed into a country-wide phenomenon, with over 5,000 brands and individuals making pledges and offering the couple everything from honeymoons and outfits to car rides and livestock (a South African wedding tradition). A national bank even wrote off the couple’s debt and offered them a low mortgage deal on a new home!

The wedding was live-streamed to audiences via EWN and viewed by thousands of people across the world.