Cannes Lions
VML, New York / WENDY'S / 2024
Awards:
Overview
Entries
Credits
Background
In Argentina, Wendy's restaurant presence was already very low compared to other major fast food chains, but now, the competition for "real estate" was also on customers mobile phones.
According to the latest Statista Research, Argentina ranks #1 globally on App deletion with a 51.4% drop rate. This means 1 out of 2 apps downloaded eventually gets deleted after 30 days, mainly because of people clearing space on their phones.
With food apps being the first ones to get rid off, this represented a big problem for Wendy's. Without the marketing budgets to retain app customers, we needed a solution that could stop people from deleting the app.
Idea
We customized the Wendy's App shortcut menu with unexpected offers that surprised people and made them think twice before deleting us.
Intercepting the journey anyone trying to delete an app would take:
Tapping and holding the app icon (through Haptic or 3D Touch)
Every week offers were updated, which not only helped Wendy's retain existing customers but also kept them coming back to discover more, thus increasing app usage.
Strategy
We talk to hungry GenZ GenY, that are always looking to maximize opportunities.
With less money and less smartphone space, they are fans of deleting apps.
The Argentinian young consumer is always on the hunt for good offers and discounts, while always ready to enjoy a good combo of their favorite food.
Execution
We customized the Wendy's app shortcut menu by adding two Quick Actions:
- The first one (Stop! Stop!) catches their attention
- The second one (offer) gets them to change their mind: by simply tapping on any of them, customers are led to the offer in-app, where they can just add to cart (with the purchase of a Wendy's combo)
Primarily the Don't Delete Menu surprised customers that were already on the way to delete us, and for two months, we updated it with new offers every week, once the word spread, app downloads and usage activity increased without any investment efforts.
In case you are wondering Quick Actions can be added by native app developers on IOS, read more on them here and check our supporting tech tutorial on how to create them: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/home-screen-quick-actions
Outcome
STOP! STOP!
A simple brand experience that became a Customer Acquisition & Retention milestone, as the gap between app downloads and app deletion was the biggest in the history of Wendy's in Argentina.
During the activation:
- App Usage increased by 138% (A record high)
- The App drop rate decreased 14% (a record low)
- Downloads increased by 36%
- Sales increased by 12%
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