How Burger King Is Driving User Engagement and Loyalty Through Gamification
Community ManagerThe Problem, Strategy, and Results of the Campaign
- Problem: Known for its award-winning campaigns, Burger King® was looking to drive the same level of awareness among new and existing customers to its quickly growing loyalty program, Royal Perks, while reinforcing BK® App engagement.
- Strategy: Burger King® and Coca-Cola® developed the retro-fun game, Thirst for Speed, where players would select one of the Coca-Cola Racing® drivers to snag loyalty program points—“Crowns”—while racing around the racetrack as fast as possible. Users would earn free soft drinks and Crowns for free food as well as the chance to win the grand prize: A VIP Racing Experience for two. Burger King developed a cross-channel messaging campaign that included custom in-app messaging, email, push notifications, social posts, and paid media. They powered this unique campaign while leveraging Braze and Braze Alloys technology partners mParticle, Amplitude, and Branch to measure the performance and attribution of this campaign.
- Results: The game resonated with new and existing users, and the campaign proved to be highly engaging, seeing 26.7K average daily plays and over 210,000 unique players over the course of the campaign. Furthermore, 75% of users who played went on to make a purchase, and 30% of guests played more than once, boosting purchase frequency by 19.5% weekly. By expanding the reachable audience through the Coca-Cola® partnership and co-marketing channels, the campaign also saw a strong lift in app downloads and “Royal Perks” sign-ups.
Building Brand Loyalty Via Engagement
Burger King® understands the importance of acquisition efforts that drive growth—and the engagement tactics that can help sustain it. Through their loyalty program, Royal Perks, Burger King® offers incentives and benefits that reward and recognize customers, bringing them back to the BK® App more frequently. To drive engagement among both new and active users, the brand tapped into hyper-casual gaming instead of the traditional coupon-heavy approach commonly used in QSR. In partnership with Coca-Cola Racing®, the 8-bit game Thirst for Speed challenged users to beat their race time in order to win different prizes every day that could be redeemed and paired with other items on the app, incentivizing customers to return to the app again and again. The game was also an opportunity to enlighten users on the value of Crowns and how to redeem their points for free BK food.
Burger King® used push notifications, in-app messages (IAMs), and email to nudge customers to play. Thoughtful user segmentation was used to ensure messaging was relevant and timely depending on what point of the user journey each individual was in (new player vs. returning player).
How the Braze Platform Enhanced the Campaign
The campaign relied on out-of-product channels like email to drive customers to open the mobile app to play the game. App users received a “Play Now” email prompt that directed them to open the mobile app; once in the app, an in-app message prompted the customer to start playing. At the end of the game, customers automatically received their prize coupon as well as an email confirming their prize. Burger King leveraged customer data platform (CDP) and Braze Alloys technology partner mParticle to trigger coupons via Braze. This cross-channel strategy kept customers coming back to the app, again and again, to engage with the brand.
Performance and player data captured during the campaign was passed from Burger King to Merkle, aBraze Alloys solutions partner, and from there seamlessly passed to Braze and Braze Alloys technology partners mParticle and Amplitude. By leveraging the Braze platform’s Connected Content dynamic content personalization tool, Burger King could securely and seamlessly pass off necessary customer data in the background. Burger King has continued to utilize Braze platform as a way to build integrations from scratch, and take the heavy lifting off their internal engineers’ plates.
“As a long-standing partner, Braze continues to be a critical consideration in how we approach our digital growth and engagement strategy at Burger King. The ability to build flexible, dynamic solutions allows our team to stay focused on driving strong results through seamless cross-channel campaigns.”
Burger King Results: More In-App Engagement, More Revenue
By making their mobile app fun, not just functional, Burger King succeeded in acquiring new users, enticing active users to engage and ultimately driving digital sales.
- 210k Unique Players
- 19.5% Purchase Frequency Increase
- 75% Of Users who played the game made a purchase within 1 day post-gameplay
Key Takeaways
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Engagement tactics can help drive higher conversions while ensuring your brand is top of mind. Consumers want more from brands than just another discount. Rich, compelling experiences are more valuable.
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Gamification can serve as a loyalty and engagement driver using mechanics that go beyond discounting or offers.
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The right tech stack can simplify the movement of data between systems and help improve overall campaign monitoring and cross-channel communication, supporting impeccable campaign execution.
Community Manager