Rethinking Digital: Key Takeaways - Part 2: Driving Engagement

Continuing our Rethinking webinar series, Matt Lockhart, Head of Digital, and Laura Winter, Group Account Director, recently sat down to discuss how the power of going 'digital first' can supercharge your brand experiences before, during, and after, reaching and engaging not thousands but millions of your audience. Here are the key takeaways from the webinar.

This blog is the second of three in the series and will be going into the second part of the webinar - Driving engagement: Once the buzz has been generated, how can we continue to drive as much engagement with a brand as possible?

Driving Engagement

How do we sustain the generated buzz and maximize engagement with a brand? This stage is crucial for transitioning brand interaction from passive to active, emphasising the building of loyalty and trust, fostering a sense of community, and creating advocates who share your brand values.

We'll explore three examples of engagement: app loyalty, AI, and enhanced experiential.

KFC: App Loyalty

KFC had a traditional and outdated loyalty scheme that struggled to drive impact for them. With over 1,100 restaurants across the UK and Ireland, they had a big opportunity to drive repeat purchases. In many ways, this can be a more cost-effective way than recruiting new customers.

They decided to tap into a nostalgic trend to create impact. The brand wanted to recreate the fun and memories people had while playing in arcades - giving them the chance to win prizes when they ordered in restaurants at drive-thru or via the app.

The KFC rewards arcade has been a massive success - the app creates a sense of loyalty, as it encourages customers to come back to collect points and continue to use it. It's also a great way to collect lots of customer data which can be used to personalise offers and content based on what and when people have purchased.

Since the revamp, KFC has seen a 53% increase in app downloads, a 26% increase in weekly users, and a 40% Redemption rate (up 6% from the previous app). What’s more, is that 70% of people who use it say they will recommend it to a friend or family member.

Doritos: AI

Doritos conducted a piece of research that identified that 35% of gamers said the sound of someone snacking annoys them while they're playing games. 29% said it affected their performance and one in five even said it made them want to log off while gaming.

Using AI, Doritos created a piece of software to cancel the noise of crunching online – allowing gamers to munch away without annoying their fellow players.

In terms of what it's generating it's difficult to say, but it's all about the buzz it's creating for the brand.

Stance: Enhanced Experiential

Establishing itself as a heavyweight in the US, Stance has successfully sold over 15 million pairs of socks, driven by its core values. The brand is renowned for its ethos centred around creativity, personal responsibility, and gratitude.

Stance ingeniously expanded its reach using digital technology that aligns with its values. The brand introduced vending machines equipped with a user interface for data collection. Users were invited to input their data and deposit the socks they were currently wearing into the vending machine, receiving a brand-new pair of Stance socks in return. The socks deposited were then recycled.

This innovative approach not only served as a unique method for capturing data but also proved to be a compelling strategy for generating robust brand engagement and positive PR.

Driving Engagement through Digital POS

Brands are leveraging new and innovative 'on-the-ground' tactics to drive sales at the tills. For instance, digital Point of Sale (POS) displays featuring animation and augmented reality have the potential to enhance engagement significantly, resulting in a substantial boost in sales. On average, POS digital screens alone yield a 17% uplift in sales at the till.

In channels like Global Travel Retail (GTR), brands such as Kiehl’s are showcasing how AR-powered POS displays can effectively communicate product information in an engaging manner. Kiehl’s interactive 'essences' table, for example, provides a unique way for customers to discover more about the product, proving to be a hit with potential customers.

In the on-trade sector, brands like Johnny Walker are introducing interactive tasting table experiences for their audience. Beyond delivering an enhanced consumer experience, these interactions also facilitate increased data capture—particularly crucial as we transition into the cookieless realm. This data can then be utilised for hyper-personalised campaigns in the future, creating a seamless connection with the customer's brand journey.

Additional interactive digital POS solutions for the on-trade, discussed in the webinar, include the ability to print bespoke images onto drinks. With the right equipment, beverages like Guinness or coffees can be enriched with specific images, be it a brand logo, the customer's face, or even a QR code leading them to specific online content.

Watch the Webinar

Of course, this is just a snapshot of the wide-ranging discussion from our recent webinar, ‘Rethinking Digital: Supercharge Brand Experiences Before, During, and After.’ Next time, we will release the third and final part of the series, where we will be discussing sustaining momentum: Once the engagement is over, how can you harness data to create hyper-personalised experiences and continue the hype?

You can watch the entire webinar, along with others, on our YouTube page.

If you’re looking for ways to drive engagement during your brand’s campaigns, do not hesitate to get in touch with one of our strategists today.