Campaign Overview: Better Nature Takes on KFC with 'Believe in Tempeh'
Better Nature is taking a confident challenger-brand swing at one of the UK's most familiar protein habits: chicken.
With its new Believe in Tempeh campaign, the tempeh brand has launched its first ever out-of-home campaign, using two high-impact billboards in London to turn attention away from chicken and toward a fermented plant-based protein alternative.
The campaign takes aim at KFC's Believe in Chicken platform, but it does not do so with a heavy-handed attack. Instead, Better Nature uses humour, category familiarity and a simple consumer invitation: there is no need to give up chicken completely. Just give it a night off.
That makes the work feel more approachable. Rather than asking people to make a dramatic lifestyle change, the campaign lowers the barrier to trial by suggesting one small swap: tempeh on a Wednesday.
A Challenger Campaign Built Around a Familiar Belief
The smartest part of Believe in Tempeh is how directly it enters an existing cultural conversation.
KFC has already put chicken into the spotlight with its Believe in Chicken platform. Better Nature does not try to compete with that scale on the same terms. Instead, it borrows the structure of the message and twists it into a challenger-brand idea.
Believe in Tempeh works because the reference is easy to understand. The audience does not need a long explanation. The campaign simply asks people to reconsider the default protein sitting on their plate.
This is a classic challenger move. The brand uses the larger competitor's cultural presence to make its own message feel sharper, faster and more relevant.
The Consumer Insight: Britain Is Bored of Chicken
The campaign is supported by research that gives the joke a strategic foundation.
According to Better Nature's research, more than half of Brits say they are bored of chicken. A significant share are also open to trying new protein options, while others say they would be ready to swap chicken out one night a week.
That matters because the campaign is not trying to convert people through guilt or restriction. It is responding to boredom.
Chicken may be the default choice for many shoppers, but default does not always mean desire. People may buy it on autopilot because it is familiar, easy and predictable. Better Nature sees that habit as an opportunity.
The campaign's role is to interrupt routine, not attack it.
That distinction makes the messaging stronger. It does not tell consumers that chicken is bad. It simply suggests that dinner could be more interesting.
Fred the Fox Gives the Brand a Character
The campaign also marks the first public appearance of Fred the Fox, Better Nature's new brand mascot.
Fred is designed to give the brand a recognizable character and bring its challenger positioning to life in a playful way. The unexpected pairing of a fox's paw and a piece of tempeh creates a visual joke that is easy to read quickly from the street.
The fox matters because mascots can create memory structures for brands. They make campaigns more ownable, more repeatable and more emotionally accessible.
For a product like tempeh, which may still be unfamiliar to many mainstream consumers, a mascot can help soften the introduction. Fred makes the brand feel less like a niche health product and more like a playful food challenger with personality.
Why OOH Is the Right Medium
OOH is a strong choice for this campaign because the message needs public confidence.
Alternative protein brands often face a challenge: they need to move beyond existing fans and reach people who may not be actively searching for plant-based options. Billboards can help do that by placing the message in front of a broader audience in everyday environments.
The format also gives the campaign the scale needed to challenge a bigger category player. When a smaller brand appears in high-impact outdoor media with a bold, simple message, it can feel larger than its market share.
That is especially useful for challenger brands looking to stand out in high-density urban areas like London.
In this case, the billboards help Better Nature look like a brand ready to compete in the mainstream food conversation.
A Small Swap Instead of a Big Lifestyle Change
One of the campaign's strongest strategic choices is that it avoids asking too much from the audience.
Many plant-based or alternative protein campaigns can sound like they are asking people to fully change their diet. That can create resistance, especially among consumers who enjoy meat or feel overwhelmed by health and sustainability messaging.
Better Nature takes a lighter route.
The brand is not asking people to stop eating chicken forever. It is asking them to give chicken one night off each week. That makes the idea feel realistic, flexible and easy to try.
This approach can be especially effective because it reframes tempeh as an addition to the weekly routine rather than a replacement for identity or lifestyle.
Consumers are not being told who to become. They are being invited to try something different for dinner.
Health Benefits Without the Lecture
The campaign also points to a nutritional opportunity.
Better Nature highlights tempeh as a protein source that offers a similar protein role to chicken while also bringing fibre and fermented, gut-friendly qualities.
That benefit is especially relevant in the UK, where the brand notes a national fibre gap and widespread under-consumption against daily fibre targets.
However, the campaign does not lead with a complicated health lecture. It leads with a joke, a character and a simple swap.
This is important because food advertising works best when the benefit feels easy to understand and easy to imagine. A billboard is not the place for a nutrition essay. It is the place for a simple reason to reconsider the meal.
Believe in Tempeh gives people that reason.
Why the Campaign Works
- It responds to culture: The campaign plays off KFC's Believe in Chicken platform, allowing Better Nature to join a bigger food conversation.
- It is built on a clear insight: Research showing that many Brits are bored of chicken gives the creative idea a strong strategic foundation.
- It lowers the barrier to trial: Asking people to give chicken one night off feels more achievable than asking for a complete diet change.
- It introduces a distinctive asset: Fred the Fox gives Better Nature a recognizable mascot that can build long-term brand memory.
- It uses humour instead of guilt: The campaign feels playful, not preachy, which makes the alternative protein message more approachable.
- It makes tempeh more mainstream: High-impact London billboards help bring a less familiar protein into public view.
- It creates challenger-brand energy: The campaign uses a small number of bold placements to make Better Nature feel confident and culturally aware.
What Marketers Can Learn
Believe in Tempeh is a strong example of how challenger brands can use OOH to compete with larger category players.
The campaign does not need a national media takeover to be effective. It needs a sharp idea, a clear target and a cultural reference that gives the message extra meaning.
By playing with KFC's platform, Better Nature makes its own campaign easier to understand. By using Fred the Fox, it gives the brand a distinctive character. By asking for one chicken-free night, it makes behaviour change feel small enough to try.
That combination is what makes the work feel commercially smart.
The campaign understands that most people do not change food habits overnight. They need a reason, a prompt and a low-pressure way in. OOH is well suited to that role because it can plant a simple idea in the public imagination: maybe chicken does not need to be the automatic choice every night.
The OOH Lesson
Outdoor advertising is especially effective when a challenger brand wants to make a bold public statement.
Digital ads can target people precisely, but billboards create shared visibility. They put the message into culture, not just into feeds. For Better Nature, that publicness matters because the brand is not only promoting a product. It is trying to challenge a habit.
The best OOH ideas often work because they are instantly understandable at a glance. Believe in Tempeh does exactly that. The line is short, the visual is unexpected and the category tension is clear.
It also shows how a billboard can do more than announce. It can provoke a small reconsideration.
In this case, the question is simple: if chicken is the default, what else could be on the plate?
Why It Matters for Food Brands
The food category is full of habits.
People often buy the same proteins, cook the same meals and repeat the same weekly patterns because familiarity makes life easier. That is why changing food behaviour can be difficult.
Better Nature's campaign respects that reality. It does not fight habit with pressure. It fights habit with humour.
That makes the campaign relevant beyond tempeh. For any food brand trying to introduce a new ingredient, format or behaviour, the lesson is clear: make the change feel smaller, more enjoyable and easier to imagine.
A single night off from chicken is a much more accessible invitation than a total dietary shift.
Bottom Line
Better Nature's Believe in Tempeh campaign shows how a challenger food brand can use OOH to punch above its weight.
By responding playfully to KFC's chicken platform, introducing Fred the Fox and tapping into Britain's boredom with default protein choices, the brand turns tempeh into a more visible and culturally relevant option.
The campaign works because it does not ask consumers to abandon chicken. It simply asks them to give it a well-earned night off.
For Better Nature, that small invitation creates a big opening: a chance to make tempeh feel more familiar, more flavourful and more ready for the mainstream plate.
Frequently asked questions
What is Better Nature's Believe in Tempeh campaign?
Believe in Tempeh is Better Nature's first out-of-home campaign, using two high-impact London billboards to challenge Britain's chicken habit and encourage people to give tempeh a try.
How does Better Nature respond to KFC's Believe in Chicken campaign?
Better Nature playfully adapts the language of belief from chicken to tempeh, using the line Believe in Tempeh as a challenger-brand response to KFC's Believe in Chicken platform.
Who is Fred the Fox?
Fred the Fox is Better Nature's new chicken-loving brand mascot, introduced publicly through the Believe in Tempeh campaign to give the brand a more recognizable and playful character.
What consumer insight supports the campaign?
The campaign is supported by research showing that more than half of Brits are bored of chicken, with many open to trying new protein options or swapping chicken out one night a week.
Why does this campaign work as OOH?
The campaign uses a simple visual joke, a clear cultural reference and high-impact billboards to make tempeh feel more interesting, accessible and memorable in a crowded food category.
What can marketers learn from Believe in Tempeh?
The campaign shows how challenger brands can use OOH to enter a larger cultural conversation, borrow familiar category language and reframe consumer habits with humor and simplicity.
Sources
- Better Nature launches ‘Believe in Tempeh’ with a cheeky challenge to KFC - newsroom (2026-09-10)
Plan your OOH campaign
Get recommendations for markets, formats and availability based on your campaign goals.
Request a media plan
Comments
Share your take. Keep it constructive and specific.