Explaining Two great modern Australian examples of how gamification can be implemented through both McDonalds And Hungry Jack’s
I am sure that many of us, including myself, have downloaded various fast-food restaurant social media applications in the hope of having access to app-exclusive deals that are not regularly available at in-store locations.
Well, that’s precisely what happened to me today when I received a notification that Hungry Jack’s is doing ‘Hungry Jack’s UNO’ in a matter of weeks. This led me to think about how the Fast Food industry is taking advantage of gamified means to entice new and existing customers to return to their restaurants.
‘Food Italian Pizza Restaurant’ by Mikhail Nilov (CC0)
Being employed in this industry has definitely witnessed gamification having a significant role in consumer purchasing decisions. Though I work for a relatively small fast-food chain, still growing in physical stores and in the digital space. Evidently, consumers are always looking for the cheapest, valued-driven deals as influenced by the financial influx caused to the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Gamification refers to the application of gaming elements implemented in a non-gaming context, with the primary purpose being to engage and motivate users to further engage with a product or service, often in a rules-based service system (Deterding et al., 2011, as cited by Aydin & Argan, 2021:82). And according to martechalliance.com (2022), this interactive technology industry is expected to grow to reach a sales revenue of $32 Billion US Dollars by 2025.
So let us take a glimpse of what current fast-food chain competitors are doing in this space.
McDonalds:
Recognized in Australia as the most well-known fast-food franchise in McDonalds’ Maccas’, to increase customer loyalty, developed the MyMaccas app. This app allows consumers to pre-order their purchases in their own time instead of doing it last minute with a non-contact experience. On the app, McDonald’s can push exclusive app-only deals. Recently McDonald’s gamified the app with a loyalty point system where you can redeem rewards through unlocking tiers for every purchase. Furthermore, I wanted to talk about the annual ‘Maccas’ Monopoly game.
First run in 1988, based on Hasbro’s Monopoly, after purchasing particular McDonald’s products, you receive tokens for free items or set tokens that, by collecting all in a set color enable you to win bigger prizes that are redeemable online. The intention is to have customers repeatedly purchase McDonalds products in the hope of collecting individual color sets. Other than being based on the formula of the original Hasbro game, the gamification element is how McDonald’s stimulates you to receive a dopamine hit in feeling like you have won, something that draws you back to wanting to purchase their product more. Recently they have incorporated this game into an interactive mobile experience where they offer mini-games to offer more ways you can win prizes.
Hungry Jacks:
I must admit, even if I ain't feeling like something to eat or drink. Just the shaking to discover products is rather quite amusing. (Wouldn't mind a skinny mocha though) ☕#ALM201 #Gamification pic.twitter.com/vWIG8yId7d — Martyn Snibson (@SnibDubTv) April 22, 2022
Another popular fast-food chain adopting this gamification strategy in their marketing to receive customer conversation is Hungry Jack’s. Their ‘Shake and Win’ app adds an interactive element that allows the user to Shake and receive either free or discounted products. They further gamify this by adding a timer component to limit the user’s time to redeem the item, similar to how timers are used in video games that Hungry Jack’s target market are typically using in their everyday lives.
On the contrary…
Later this month, another gamified Hungry Jack’s consumer experience that is starting is Hungry Jack’s ‘Uno’. Uno is one of the world’s well-known card games, collaborating with Hungry Jack’s to create a gamified experience. When purchasing Hungry Jack’s products, you acquire UNO cards where the goal is to find matching cards to win in-store rewards and other more significant prizes.
There are countless other examples of how gamification is being applied in the fast-food restaurant industry as a key marketing tool to attract new and existing customers to purchase products.
However, with this marketing tool comes a broad range of questions particularly mentioning the consumer. For example, with younger audiences having access to technological devices, could these apps have a negative impact on a child’s eating habits regarding nutrition and other widespread health problems?
Coming soon I will be publishing a blog about how gamification can be implemented and used by businesses as a mechanism for corporate social responsibility. Maybe some of those questions could be answered?
References:
Ögel Aydın, S and Argan, M (2021), “Understanding how gamification influences consumers’, dietary preferences”, Journal of Social Marketing, 11(2):82-123 doi:10.1108/JSOCM-09-2019-0137
Sarah O’Neill (2022), “Gamification in Marketing: Stats and Trends for 2022“, martechalliance, date accessed 22 April 2022
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