Carl’s Jr. has launched a mobile game to encourage customers to download its mobile app and join the quick-service burger chain’s loyalty program.
The Need Burger, Get Burger game is available through October, offering daily prizes to players who maneuver a digital car into burgers while avoiding stop signs and traffic cones.
The chain of around 1,060 locations, part of CKE Restaurants based in Franklin, Tenn., said over the course of the month it will give away 2,500 large orders of fries, 2,500 large drinks, and 5,000 orders each, with additional purchases, of single Famous Star burgers, single Diablo Burgers, single Bacon Western Burgers, and single Guacamole Burgers.
Other prices include percentage discounts on purchases.
To claim the prizes, customers must download the Carl’s Jr. app and create a My Rewards account if they don’t have one already. They must redeem their prizes by the end of the year.
Gaming has been part of numerous restaurant apps for a while now. Starbucks periodically offers games on its app, and last year Chick-fil-A introduced Code Moo, a game customers could play to win weekly prizes, and reprised it this year.
Earlier this year, Chipotle introduced Burrito Vault, a game that gave players a chance to win free burritos for a year, but it had been gamifying its digital marketing for more than a decade, including dabbling in the metaverse.
There are good reasons for encouraging customers to download apps and join loyalty programs. For off-premises occasions, ordering by a restaurant’s app is less expensive for the restaurant than if customers order via a third-party marketplace. Additionally, restaurants can record order history and other data about guests who use their apps and tailor promotional offers to those individual guests’ tastes.
Loyalty program members also spend up to 18% more than other customers, according to Salesforce.
Carl’s Jr. has been working to beef up its loyalty program base for most of the year.
On February 12, the day after the Super Bowl, it offered free Western Bacon Cheeseburgers to any My Rewards program members. As a result, more than 200,000 people joined the chain’s loyalty program on that day, boosting its membership by around 20%.
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]
