Marketing

A&W's excellent adventure in quiz-based marketing

"What kind of road tripper are you?" By digitally asking customers that simple question, A&W managed to establish something akin to the pandemic-restricted in-store experience it had with customers, while also simultaneously learning loads about their wants and needs from the QSR chain.

At A&W, a quiz-based marketing initiative helped give the chain some impressive sales figures over the last year. (Image provided)

May 25, 2021 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

Like a frothy head of one of its trademark root beers, Lexington, Kentucky-based A&W's sales keep growing, right along with the franchise system of the 102-year-old QSR, which now includes more than 900 stores globally.

In fact, just in the first quarter of this year, A&W signed five U.S. franchise agreements, as the brand's same-store sales soared 22%, according to a brand spokesman, who added A&W would open two more locations as c-store highway restaurants for the coming Memorial Day weekend alone.

That 22% quarter-year over quarter year increase is impressive, but it becomes particularly eye-opening when you also take into account that the quarter it's compared to – in 2020 – was actually also up a hefty 20% over Q1 2019.

It is, in short, the chain is having a very good few years, and some of the credit for that goes to a marketing initiative the chain initiated last year.

A&W literally puts itself to the 'test'

Last September, amidst the pandemic's restrictions on dine-in, A&W leaders wanted to engage their customers in the truly personalized fashion it had become known for in its restaurants, even though it was unable to physically do so at the time. So, the brand developed a marketing strategy that would take the wildly popular area of quiz commerce and unite it with a first-party data marketing strategy to digitally "reach out and touch" consumers. In this quiz-based approach, brands build stronger brand and customer bonds by not just engaging customers, but educating them in a fun way, as well.

Just as importantly, these types of approaches help brands build their stores of key first-party data that QSRs like A&W can ultimately use to build trust and loyalty with diners since brands learn about their customers' personal preferences through this format, which A&W worked with Boston-based, interactive digital experience developer, Jebbit, to develop. And like A&W's storied root beer floats, the brand is now overflowing with detailed and voluminous information on customers' preferences, personalities and needs. A&W said it will and is using that information to better personalize its communications and marketing to diners.

"The pandemic not only increased the volume of e-commerce transactions, but forever changed buying behavior. Brands will be left behind if they don't change how they communicate with customers. ... The Road Tripper Quiz helped us get an even deeper understanding of A&W's online fans and who they are on an emotional level."

-A&W's Spencer Barrett

To gauge exactly how successful this quiz platform has been for A&W, we checked with the brand for some of the results around its six quiz "experiences." The company said in all it registered more than 39,000 views, with (drumroll please) a 92% completion rate for the quizzes. What happens when your QSR manages to get customers to not only open, but complete 92% of your quiz experiences? Well, in A&W's case, a reported 58% capture rate, according to a brand spokesperson. In fact, the most successful of the six quiz experiences launched, entitled, "What Kind of Roadtripper are You?" boasted a 96% completion rate and 77% engagement rate across 17,300 views, also yield an 85% lead capture rate.

According to A&W Digital Manager Spencer Barrett those results and the entire quiz-giving experience were both "eye-opening" and brand-bettering. For instance, the company credits the campaign, in part, for helping it produce its highest growth year in almost 10 years, during 2020 with pivotal results like:

• 9.7% increase in 2020 same-store sales at single-brand franchised restaurants.
• 8.5% systemwide sales increase in fiscal 2020.

Who doesn't love a good personality test? A&W's Roadtripper quiz identified four types of travelers that customers might fall into after taking the quiz.(Image provided)

Beyond those bottom-line results, the initiative provided future fodder for the brand since Barrett said Jebbit's polling features gave the brand some particular helpful insights into its customers' state of mind.

"Using Jebbit's polling feature allowed us to determine preferred menu items of our online fans," he told QSRweb. "This data is helping us better identify the menu items to promote on our social channels and for in-store sales events going forward. We are also leveraging the experiences as a way to grow subscribers of our email program, the Mug Club, allowing us to continue fostering the relationships with our customers."

Barrett said the quizzes also proved to perform the best with the 25-to-34 and 35-to-44 age groups, which underscores the brand's understanding of its core consumer groups, enabling it to push forward with marketing geared in that direction, as well. But, he added that beyond mere demographics, results from the quizzes — especially that previously mentioned Roadtripper quiz — continue to help A&W with information on how to reach its customers this summer and beyond.

"The Road Tripper Quiz helped us get an even deeper understanding of A&W's online fans and who they are on an emotional level," he said. "For example, the majority of respondents said they prefer traveling with their significant other and their favorite part of the road trip is spending time with loved ones. We can utilize this data across multiple touch-points — from the content we post on our social channels to the types of coupons and discounts we offer in our restaurants. …

"The pandemic not only increased the volume of e-commerce transactions, but forever changed buying behavior. Brands will be left behind if they don't change how they communicate with customers. This means unifying their marketing across channels and customer journeys, targeting their audiences more effectively, and investing in growing their own first-party customer data to build longstanding, profitable relationships."

And that is, in fact, what A&W is seeking to do more of through increased numbers of stores in the year ahead and beyond, when it said that it is focusing on developing single-brand and c-store restaurants with drive-thrus. The c-store locations opening this week in Jefferson, Wisconsin and Yermo, California, are part of that, along with additional locations opening this year in Clark County, Nevada, as well as Pocatello, Idaho; Sioux City, South Dakota and Emmetsburg, Iowa.

"A&W had tremendous sales momentum leading up to the pandemic," John Palumbo, A&W senior director of development, said in a news release about the new store openings. "Over the last year, it has become even more apparent that A&W is extremely well-positioned to keep growing."

About S.A. Whitehead

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Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.