Wendy’s International rolled out its new gift card program last week amid fresh TV spots and giveaways.
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Wendy’s gave away 80,000 $1 gift cards to airline passengers who could produce a boarding pass that showed they were sitting in a middle seat.
The giveaway was a play on the tagline, “Who knew that stuck in the middle could be so good,” for its new Double Melt hamburger—bacon, cheese and cheese sauce stuffed between two hamburger patties.
The promotion took place in front of 16 Wendy’s locations in nine airports including LaGuardia Airport in New York, Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
On Nov. 24, national 15- and 30-second TV spots began advertising a $1 reloadable gift card with the purchase of a new Double Melt flavor: jalapeno cheddar or bacon cheddar. The promotion runs through Dec. 15 with an anticipated 8 million gift cards being distributed.
“We just wanted to do something different to tie into two product launches at the same time,” said Nancy Hagemeier, brand marketing director for Wendy’s.
The effort comes as Wendy’s switches from paper gift certificates to plastic electronic gift cards, which allow the company to more easily track metrics like total sales and reload and redemption values.
“Those are all just metrics that we simply didn’t have with paper certificates,” Hagemeier said.
Since the switch from paper to plastic is “slightly more expensive,” Wendy’s also plans to share performance measures with franchisees to prove out the benefits.
The cards are available in denominations ranging from $5 to $200.
The next phase of the gift card launch calls for promotional and incentive opportunities based on transactional data gleaned as the cards get swiped at point-of-sale. Wendy’s is also planning to incorporate a reward program with the cards and is launching a Web page next month for cardholders to register and monitor transactions.
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