Gaming is bigger than the music and movie industries combined, but the hottest thing in gaming isn’t a new online game — it’s an established offline game. Tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons are at the peak of their popularity due to shows like “Stranger Things” and “Game of Thrones.” So we created Feast of Legends — a Wendy’s-themed tabletop role-playing game all about the Wendy’s brand. Menu items became playable characters, players received in-game bonuses for eating Wendy’s food and gameplay spanned more than 15 hours. Gamers weren’t just hearing Wendy's brand messages — they were playing them.

Wendy’s, the No. 3 burger quick service burger restaurant (QSR) chain in America, was founded in 1969 in direct opposition to the QSR category. This was notably represented in Wendy’s core differentiator — our use of fresh beef, when the majority of the category opted for frozen.

But when you say something repeatedly, people eventually stop listening, and Wendy’s had been saying its core differentiator — fresh, never frozen beef — for more than 50 years.

We needed to find a fresh way to talk about fresh beef. It’s a powerful motivator, which is problematic when mealtime decisions are made impulsively. When hunger comes calling, consumers think of our competitors first, and Wendy’s third.

Like most brands, the future of Wendy’s growth lies with a younger audience. Specifically, the ubiquitous 18- to 34-year-olds because they’re the audience eating in the QSR category most often.

Our objective is to communicate our core differentiator of fresh, never frozen beef with a younger audience.

One of the biggest interests of this audience is gaming — both playing games and watching others play them on social platforms such as Twitch. However, the hottest topic in video games isn’t online — it’s offline. Tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) like Dungeons & Dragons are at the peak of their popularity due to shows like “Stranger Things” and “Game of Thrones” and platforms like Twitch.

Tabletop role-playing games are unique for their in-depth storytelling and gameplay that is acted out in real life. Therefore, we could create an entire world and game about the Wendy’s brand and the QSR category where players would adventure on behalf of Queen Wendy and battle the evils of frozen beef.

Rather than finding a way to say “fresh beef,” we would make a way for people to experience it by gamifying it. Because, when you’re truly committed to something, you’ll go to any length to prove it. Like bringing Wendy’s fight for fresh, never frozen beef to any and every frontier — including but not limited to the world of gaming.

We housed the adventure and rules of Feast of Legends within a 100-page book with fully illustrated Wendy's characters, more than 50,000 words, and an in-depth adventure spanning more than 15 hours of gameplay. Gamers wouldn’t just be hearing Wendy's brand messages, they would be acting them out as part of the gameplay. During gameplay, players receive in-game bonuses for eating Wendy's food and penalties for eating anything else.

At the end of a panel on role-playing games at New York Comic Con, we announced the launch of Feast of Legends and a partnership with Critical Role, a role-playing game group so popular they’ve been cited as a primary reason for the commercial and cultural resurgence of Dungeons & Dragons. We amplified the message from Wendy’s owned social channels and drove gamers to a branded microsite where they could download the game.

People joined Wendy’s fight for fresh beef in droves.

The game book has been downloaded from FeastofLegends.com more than a quarter-million times, and our launch has generated more than 289 million earned media impressions. Viewers tuned in to Critical Role’s livestream of Feast of Legends and spent an average of 58 minutes watching the fight for fresh beef unfold — watching more than 98,000 hours total. Feast of Legends has taken on a life of its own, inspiring fan art, cosplay, in-restaurant game nights, and fan-created communities on Reddit and Discord.