When March rolls around every sports fan thinks about the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments. Thoughts turn to Duke, Kansas, Michigan, Kentucky, and other perennially great men's programs while fans of the women's game imagine what UConn, Tennessee, and South Carolina might do on the women's side.
It's a crazy time of year affectionately known as "March Madness." That season has started now with conference tournaments deciding which teams will make the tournament and, of course, the ever-important announcement of which fast-food chain will be the official hamburger of the NCAA tournament,
That's not quite as fabled a competition. Few people can name 2021's official hamburger nor does anyone remember which chain held that distinction in previous years, but for 2022 Wendy's (WEN) has stepped up to take that vaunted position.
Image source: Wendy's.
Wendy's Has a Lot of Special Offers
While Wendy's has no obvious tie to high-level college basketball, the chain has decided to make its association with the NCAA fun. NBA legend Reggie Miller has joined the fast-food leader once again to serve as the face of its March Madness promotion. And, while it's hard to picture that Miller eats a lot of fast food, using him as a spokesperson makes sense in a world where Tom Brady, who very clearly never eats at Subway, appears in ads touting Subway.
Wendy's has called Miller its "shooting guard," and has released the rest of its deals, which are heavily digitally focused, as the rest of its "starting lineup." These deals (and Wendy's strained basketball tie-in) include:
- At Center: $1 Dave's Single via Wendy's app with mobile order
- At Point Guard: Half off breakfast via Wendy's app with mobile order
- At Power Forward: $0 delivery fee with Wendy's delivery when ordered through the app or website.
- At Small Forward: $3 off orders of $15+ via the Wendy's app
Orders placed via Wendy's app will be eligible to earn rewards points through the chain's loyalty program
"Wendy's is going mad for March Madness this year. How else could you explain these insane deals all tournament long?" said Wendy's Chief Marketing Officer Carl Loredo. "We know a little something about coming out on top, and love celebrating the best of the best in college basketball with the best breakfast and best hamburgers in the game."
Wendy's Has a Method to Its Madness
Yes, Wendy's has used a bunch of uncomfortable basketball references in what seems like a very forced tie-in, but there's an underlying reason for it. The chain really wants to drive people to its app and mobile ordering because receiving orders that way costs the company less than taking them at the counter.
Those efforts have been paying off, according to CEO Todd Penegor's comments during Wendy's fourth-quarter earnings call.
"Our U.S. digital business also accelerated during the fourth quarter, exiting with digital sales mix of more than 9% in December," Penegor said. "This growth was driven by gains across both mobile ordering and delivery. We also saw meaningful increases to our loyalty program, growing total members by approximately 75% over the course of the year and growing monthly active users by approximately 25%."
The CEO made it clear that driving people to its digital sales channels -- which the March Madness promotion is designed to do -- will be a key driver for the chain.
"For the full year, we achieved explosive digital sales growth of 75% versus the prior year, which contributed to our strong sales result through higher frequency of our active users and higher average checks across our digital platforms," he said. "We expect meaningful growth in our digital channels to continue across the globe in 2022 as we drive more people into our app with compelling offers through the strength of our growing loyalty program and innovation as part of our strategic partnership with Google to create best-in-class, frictionless experiences in Wendy's restaurants around the world."
So, while the whole "starting lineup" gimmick may be a bit silly, Wendy's has a clear plan to run up the score for shareholders.
