Thanx, the leading loyalty and guest engagement platform for restaurants, together with Dreambox, the leading digital advertising agency for restaurant brands, announce a new partnership as part of the Thanx Preferred Agency Program, with Dreambox as its inaugural partner.
“When Thanx approached us with how our companies could work together as a benefit to our clients, I thought it was incredibly strategic and innovative,” said Co-Founder and CEO of Dreambox Dan Bejmuk, an industry thought leader who serves as vice-chair of the steering committee of the National Restaurant Association’s Marketing Executive Board (MEG).
Bejmuk went on to say that Thanx has recognized dramatic improvements in the client experience when a vetted agency partner, such as Dreambox, is part of the extended team. Thanx’s intention through its preferred agency program is to ensure that the collaboration has measurable results for all involved, including:
- Strong knowledge working with the Thanx platform from launch through ongoing iteration and optimization throughout the life of the program
- Brand-conscious messaging development within platform capabilities
- Solid experience with Thanx reporting and industry-proven key performance index (KPI) that hooks into external channels
- Ability to rapidly consume brand guidelines, proven-process to concept review/approval/feedback and ultimate program configuration
- Effective support process to accelerate program launch
- Recurrent training for agency-team members across all Thanx platforms (no need to wait for the agency partner to get up to speed)
Loyalty programs have undergone remarkable growth and changes in the past three years, and both companies acknowledge that being creative simply for creativity’s sake is no longer viable in today’s competitive restaurant landscape. Brands are competing for guests’ attention amidst crowded inboxes, ever-changing social media algorithms, and constant ad bombardment while third-party delivery siphons customer relationships.
Building on a number of successful collaborations across common clients where the results represented a deep look at brand differentiation, user experience and cultural relevance including Velvet Taco and Marugame Udon, the preferred agency initiative represents a natural evolution with an established mix of teams.
Marugame Udon, a 1200-unit Japanese brand with thirteen U.S. locations, launched its loyalty program earlier this year.
“We needed our loyalty program to have its own identity,” said Kristin Yi, the restaurant brand’s director of marketing. “Our focus is to offer an extremely intimate experience to our guests through Exclusive with Marugame. The most effective way we’ve been able to do that was to absorb the program’s objectives with Dreambox’s creative and experiential expertise, along with the needed technology that Thanx offers.”
“We refused to launch a heavily-discounted ‘earn and burn’ program for Marugame Udon,” added Yi. “It’s just not who we are, and our extended team–Dreambox and Thanx–understood the importance of being culturally relevant. They made our vision a reality.”
Touchpoints, whether digital or in-store, have evolved to be more personalized and data-driven. While creative out-of-the-box marketing has helped in capturing guests’ attention, for restaurant marketers, it also needs to leverage data to help fine-tune a campaign’s performance illustrating its return on investment.
Dreambox’s client roster reads like a Who’s Who of restaurant brands--Ike’s Love and Sandwiches, The Habit Burger Grill, Grimaldi’s Pizzeria and approximately 70 additional brands—with the Thanx partnership adding another layer of convenience with its best-in-class loyalty, guest engagement and digital ordering platform capabilities.
Dallas-based Velvet Taco, a 42-store fast-casual taco brand created by FB Society restaurant group launched their loyalty program in the past year. The Velvet Room is a program that developed and evolved through deep cross-team collaboration. Velvet Taco’s Digital Marketing Manager, Jesse Worthington stated, "Our brand’s aggressive focus on continual menu innovation through our 'Weekly Taco Feature' meant we needed a platform in Thanx that allowed our relevant messaging to reach the right audience at the right time, as developed through our agency Dreambox."
“Loyalty empowers brands to use data to deliver personalized customer experiences that win guests’ attention amidst the noise of crowded inboxes and delivery marketplaces. But just because you have the data, doesn't mean you are maximizing its utility," said Zach Goldstein, CEO and Founder of Thanx.
“As a certified agency partner, Dreambox supports our shared restaurant customers in delivering differentiated digital touch points at scale, using the Thanx tools to ensure each communication is personalized, on-brand, and driving measurable sales lift,” added Goldstein.