Wendy’s Canada had just completed several key upgrades to its mobile app and wanted to get more users to download and use the Wendy’s App. These upgrades were made to streamline operations for staff and customers, and with in-app ordering, significantly help to bring costs down.

Though the features were new news for Wendy’s, they were old news in the world of QSR apps.

Wendy's is a fierce challenger brand with a national footprint but lacks the number of restaurants and usage that competitors Tim Hortons, McDonald’s, and A&W enjoy.

Digitally, the situation was worse. Wendy’s seriously lagged behind its key competitors in functionality and user experience, and it was imperative that they get back in the digital fight. To do it, Wendy’s had to get Canadians excited about the Wendy’s App by giving them a really good reason to download and continue to use it.

We launched The Wendy’s Phone – custom-made for Wendy’s fans. But much like our ‘limited time only’ burgers, we only made a limited number – and the only way to get a chance at one, was by using our app.

To get the phone, all you had to do was download the Wendy’s App and share a pic of your favourite order. Baconator and Fries? You’re entered. Frosty and a salad? Weird. But you’re entered.

The phone had custom features, including a custom UI, ringtones, and our Hey Wendy voice assistant. Hey Wendy acts like any other voice assistant, but with the addition of a healthy dose of Wendy’s sass. She’ll tell you the weather, but isn’t going to order you any McDonald’s.

95% of Canadians own a smartphone and 92% consume fast food on a weekly basis – that’s an awful lot of people to target (GWI/eMarketer). So, we gave ourselves a little more focus: current Wendy’s customers that either don’t have our app, or had lapsed from using it regularly.

Drilling down to these Wendy’s customers specifically, research showed that Wendy’s loyalists over-indexed on the use of Twitter, and were tech savvy with a keen interest in buying the latest tech and gadgets (Vividata 2021).

Now that we firmly knew the task at hand and the target most likely to download, we set ourselves three specific objectives:

1. Increase in-app total order sales by 50% YOY

2. Increase number of transactions through the app by 50% YOY

3. Increase downloads of the app by 15% YOY

In addition to doing everything a smartphone does, the Wendy's phone boasts a few extra features, including a custom one-of-a-kind voice assistant: Wendy. Every phone was custom-built inside and out, from design, to the UI, to the ringtone. There was even a secret menu, and of course, a contact for Wendy herself which we used as a direct 1:1 connection with our most loyal fans, asking them for their feedback to help with product innovation, and more.

After teasing the launch of the phone, we put out a call to enter on social media, online video sites, and even Spotify. We had some of YouTube’s most famous unboxers show their fans what the Wendy’s Phone was all about.

The campaign culminated in a livestream hosted by our Wendy voice assistant. Wendy gave out clues to a hidden phrase that would unlock our last Wendy’s phone for the lucky fan.

The hype paid off. People tweeted about it, podcasted about it, unboxed it, and even smashed their old phone as evidence they needed a new one.

Critically, we exceeded our objectives.

1. 158% YOY increase in transactions through the app (exceeding 50% goal)

2. 138% YOY increase in net sales (exceeding our 50% goal)

3. 40,000 new downloads – a 24% increase and a new record that beat our goal of 15% growth

The campaign moved the Wendy’s App’s position in the App Store restaurant category up eight places, bringing us closer in line with category leaders.

The campaign was a viral hit, resulting in over 84 media hits, 39 unique Canadian media stories, and 25 syndicated stories, including in Bloomberg, Android Central and TechRadar.

All told, the campaign resulted in 14M earned and organic impressions and 16.3k #WendysPhone mentions. Brand sentiment on social media climbed to over 75% positive.