The Offer: Fast food isn’t necessarily known as the healthy option. But Wendy‘s, working with Ohio digital marketing agency Resource Interactive, aims to change that perception with its nutrition app, which allows users to customize meals based on desired caloric intake or by selecting items from the menu to reach their stated goal. Customers can then save their healthy option meal creations in a “Favorites” section and geo-locate nearby restaurants. According to Resource Interactive, future versions of the app will include additional and expanded features, such as more detailed nutritional information, digital couponing, and a mobile payment option.
The Data: A month since its launch in mid-July, the free app received more than 26,000 downloads, with users spending an average of nine and a half minutes per visit.
The Channel: The brand worked with a team of registered dieticians to ensure that the app’s calorie counts were accurate. A dedicated Twitter feed, @WendysRDs, was also created to provide users with nutrition advice and Wendy’s news.
The Creative: Customers have the flexibility to personalize any meal combination to their particular liking, including adding pickles to the single cheeseburger or eliminating the dressing from the Baja chicken salad.
The Verdict:
Cathy Salazar is senior partner and search practice lead at MEC Interaction, where she is responsible for oversight of AT&T’s search marketing business. Salazar has more than 12 years of experience in the digital field, including display ad work for Agency.com and JPMorgan Chase. Read our Q&A with Cathy for more.
First of all, if I was a marketer at Wendy’s, I would bring this for partnership with Weight Watchers. In an increasingly weight-conscious society this application rocks. For anyone who is counting calories or points, this gives them the opportunity to still eat at Wendy’s and track what they eat without feeling guilty, which is the main sentiment quick-serve restaurants have to combat these days.
