KFC, Vodafone, Accenture: This Week's Top Marketing News

KFC Appoints First-Ever Chief Brand Officer Amid Rebrand

KFC is appointing its first-ever Global Chief Brand Officer. 

Effective November 1, Amy Ellis Durini will be taking on the newly created role, following the launch of a major global rebrand in June 2026. 

She previously spent eight years at KFC, and rejoins the company after five years at Taco Bell. 

“As we continue setting the standard for the modern chicken QSR, I am excited to welcome Amy Ellis Durini to our global leadership team as KFC's Global Chief Brand Officer,” Scott Mezvinsky, CEO of KFC, said of the appointment on LinkedIn.
 
“I've had the pleasure of working with Amy during my time with KFC LA&C and Taco Bell. Her creativity, collaborative mindset, strategic leadership and track record of culture-led growth will help us connect with consumers in even more relevant and distinctive ways.”

Who are KFC’s biggest partners?

• NVIDIA: NVIDIA partnered with KFC parent company Yum! Brands to accelerate restaurant industry innovation. Developers at Byte by Yum! harnessed NVIDIA NIM microservices and NVIDIA Riva to build new AI-accelerated voice ordering agents in under four months. These agents can understand natural speech, process complex menu orders and suggest add-ons.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS): Yum! Brands uses AWS as the main cloud foundation for its global restaurant technology platform. The collaboration uses AWS to power Byte by Yum! to connect digital ordering, point-of-sale systems, kitchen displays, inventory and delivery.
• Google Cloud: In 2024, KFC Mexico announced a three-year agreement with Google Cloud to deploy advanced data analytics and machine learning. The platform analyses customer habits to build hyper-personalised menu offers that have been based on consumption patterns and consumer behaviour.  
• Celestra: Celestra partnered with KFC to deliver large‑scale, multi‑site technology rollouts across its UK estate. Through tailored project management, the company says it ensured every site received fully configured, plug‑and‑play hardware designed to minimise disruption and accelerate go‑live operations.

Vodafone Launches Campaign to Promote Vodafone SuperMobile

Vodafone has launched an action movie-inspired campaign to promote the launch of Vodafone SuperMobile, its high-speed mobile connectivity offering. 

Starring Roman Kemp and created by Leo UK, Vodafone says the campaign is designed to “bring the feeling of being unstoppable to life”. 

“Vodafone SuperMobile is more than a product launch,” says Maria Koutsoudakis, Chief Brand Officer of VodafoneThree. “It marks a new chapter for Vodafone and sets a new benchmark for what customers should expect from their mobile experience. 

Travis Kelce’s ‘Only in New York’ in Tommy Hilfiger Campaign

In case you somehow missed it, global popstar Taylor Swift and Kansas Chief American Footballer Travis Kelce tied the knot almost two months ago with a bedazzling wedding at Madison Square Garden, New York.

After a quiet break away from the limelight, both individuals seem to have thrown themselves back into work.

Travis has brought his dog along too.

Celebrating Tommy Hilfiger’s new Fall collection, Travis takes the leading role in its ‘Only in New York’ campaign, released 1 September.

The campaign takes on a playful angle and features Travis’ own dog in some of the shots as audiences see her contribute to the brand’s ‘quiet luxury’ reputation.

When asked why Travis shot the campaign with the new family pet, he replied: “Why not her? She crushed it and actually really fit into that Tommy aesthetic too… Those are some of my favourite shots.”

Accenture Appoints New CMO from Workday

Accenture has appointed a new Chief Marketing Officer. 

Emma Chalwin will be taking on the role after three years as the Chief Marketing Officer of Workday, effective 1 October 2026.

Overseeing global marketing and communications organisations for the company, Emma will be filling a role that has sat empty since former Chief Marketing Officer Jill Kramer joined Mastercard in December 2025. 

“There is so much about the opportunity that energises me,” Emma says. “The chance to build on one of the world’s most admired brands. To help drive growth and deepen client relationships. To work alongside incredible talent.  And to help bring Accenture’s story of reinvention to life in a way that is bold, differentiated and deeply human. 

“Because as AI changes almost everything about how we work and how businesses grow, I believe human connection matters more than ever.”

Gartner: Ignoring AEO Could Create Demand 'Blind Spots'

AI is playing a more significant role in the user journey – meaning that marketing leaders need new ways to understand exactly how customer demand is changing. 

Research from Advanced Web Ranking has found that, as of March 2026, AI overviews are appearing on 48% of all Google search queries, while a study from Seer Interactive revealed that organic CTR drops 61% when an AI overview is present. 

Therefore, organisations that rely on click-based measurement are risking creating “blind spots”, says Gartner – which is particularly damaging as customer behaviour undergoes significant changes. 

While marketing leaders have traditionally seen traffic, attribution data and clicks as the key measures of customer demand, Gartner recommends marketers take a hybrid approach to measurement.

Customers now have the ability to receive answers without ever having to visit a company website, creating what Gartner calls “zero-click” experiences – which traditional measurement systems are unable to capture. 

This means, Gartner says, that while there may still be a high level of demand for a company's products or services, it’s getting harder for marketers to have visibility into that demand.