Brief:

• Wendy's this week became the first company to sponsor a branded takeover of GasBuddy, the app that helps drivers find the lowest-cost gas at nearby stations. The burger chain is promoting the nationwide expansion of its new breakfast menu that launched last week, according to an announcement shared with Mobile Marketer.
• Wendy's ads appear on GasBuddy's home screen and on the app's popular "Price Spread" feature that shows the difference between the cheapest and most expensive gas stations nearby. The branded takeover captures 100% of GasBuddy's pre-drive audience as they plan their daily errands, per its announcement.​
• GasBuddy users visit quick-service restaurants like Wendy's more than 30 million times a month, Jordan Grossman, EVP of advertising sales at GasBuddy, said. GasBuddy has information on more than 150,000 gas stations in North America, and has been downloaded more than 90 million times.

Insight:

As Wendy's promotes its new breakfast menu nationwide, a branded takeover of GasBuddy makes sense to help it reach mobile consumers as they prepare to start their day and plan fuel-ups. The campaign indicates that Wendy's likely saw positive results from its past promotional efforts with GasBuddy. Last year, the burger chain was the first sponsor of GasBuddy's "Badges" feature that alerts drivers to nearby amenities as they're traveling, including restaurants and hotels.

"Having worked with GasBuddy before on various successful campaigns, we knew it had to be part of our marketing strategy given their audience and reach," Jimmy Bennett, VP of media and social at Wendy's, said in the press release.

The branded takeover of GasBuddy is part of Wendy's massive campaign to promote its new breakfast menu, including social media activations to reach mobile consumers. The QSR chain two weeks ago briefly locked its Twitter account to offer dedicated followers a coupon for free food delivered by DoorDash. During the lockout period, Wendy's also asked followers to roast competitors in posts with the #WendysBreakfastBattle hashtag to extend its reach and brew up buzz online.

Wendy's new breakfast menu is the chain's fourth attempt to boost sales during the early daypart, and it is among the QSR restaurants that are vying for one of the few segments that continues to grow. QSR foot traffic during the early daytime hours rose more than 7% from 2014 to 2019, while visits during lunch and dinner slipped around 1%, per NPD Group data cited by Food Business News. A third of consumers ages 18-34 eat weekday breakfasts while traveling to another location, the researcher found, making it imperative for Wendy's to reach on-the-go consumers as they commute through apps like GasBuddy.