KFC added 6,000 subscribers to its mobile loyalty program and saw a 13 percent redemption rate for coupons sent to the list over a one-month period.

The database and coupons were part of the fast-food giant?s ?Relief Plan? campaign, which was comprised of four distinct weekly offers. KFC saw a significant bump in participation when traditional media outlets were engaged to get the message out ? including an email blast to a group of existing subscribers.

?J&A was looking for a way to make KFC?s message more integrated with consumers and increase traffic via exceptional coupon offers,? said Jarrett Klein, national sales manager at Cellit Marketing, Phoenix. ?The mobile platform accomplished just that, and brought more dimension to KFC?s overall media mix.?

J&A Integrated Thinking is a full-service agency that has worked with KFC for more than 40 years, providing local marketing services and media planning and buying for 50 markets and approximately 1,500 retail units.

During the campaign, the average store redemption was 13 percent. A whopping 14,000 coupons were sent during the one-month promotion.

A follow-up survey identified which offers consumers preferred over others, enabling J&A and KFC to better hone content going forward. Forty-five percent of the database participated in the survey.

Here are some screen grabs of traditional media promotiong the mobile program:

Method for success
Upon J&A's creation of the Relief Plan, KFC used Cellit?s technology to collect information from participants that would allow segmentation and targeting of users in future mobile campaigns.

Each week, the KFC team at J&A sent out a different mobile offer to the database, rotating through a buy-one-get-one free offer, a percentage-off discount offer and an offer of a completely free lower-value item such as a small drink.

The mobile club was promoted in-store, online and in other traditional media.

KFC stores could track the popularity of the individual offers, as well as specific traffic patterns by store throughout the promotion.

To understand consumer preferences, Cellit designed a post-promotion mobile survey that was sent to all mobile members who participated in the KFC Relief Plan program.

Why mobile?
J&A sought an opportunity to introduce mobile to its KFC clients and test the effectiveness of the medium on KFC?s target audience.

Due to a highly competitive fast-food landscape where the customer is faced with nearly unlimited choices, it was critical that KFC present compelling and competitive offers that break through the quick-service-restaurant clutter and motivate the consumer to action.

Mobile is really changing the fast-food business, according to Neil Strother, practice director at ABI Reseach, Oyster Bay, NY.  

"Fast-food restaurants have been leveraging mobile in several ways: for discovery of nearby locations, coupons and for enabling mobile ordering and purchase," Mr. Strother said.

"Mobile is a good fit for these chains, especially the forward-thinking ones that seek to gain an advantage in a highly-competitive market by providing new tools for on-the-go customers," he said.