The global fast-food and quick-service restaurant market was worth $232.3 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.9% during 2022-27 to reach $308 billion in 2027. Although the COVID-19 pandemic impeded offline sales, online sales during the lockdowns went through the roof.
However, such rapid growth has also attracted other major players, which has made the industry highly competitive. Therefore, fast-food restaurants need to leverage every marketing avenue available to them to drive their brand awareness. And Facebook with its massive audience is undoubtedly the biggest marketing channel for fast-food brands.
But to maximize Facebook’s marketing potential, brands need to come up with viable Facebook marketing strategies just like these three global fast-food companies.
1. Pizza Hut Singapore
Pizza Hut is a well-known pizza brand across the world. It was about to launch a new pizza in Singapore that it wanted to promote.
Their Objective
The multinational restaurant wanted to test new ways to drive the performance of its online campaigns and boost online orders for its newly launched stuffed-crust pizza.
Approach & Solution
Pizza Hut ran a series of video ads that were optimized for different mobile placements across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and in-stream video.
The pizza outlet launched a campaign to analyze how mobile-optimized and recut TV commercials performed against long-form TV ads that aired on Facebook. These videos were adapted into a vertical format for Stories, a square format for in-feed video ads, and a 16:9 format for in-stream video placements. While the brand was introduced in the first three seconds, the promotion for the new pizza was highlighted in the first five seconds.
Pizza Hut then monitored online sales through the Facebook pixel, comparing the performance between the mobile-optimized ad assets and the ad with the long-form. Horizontal TV commercial.
The Result
Pizza Hut Singapore’s campaign ran for about eight weeks in 2019 and performed exceptionally. While it led to a 15% higher ROAS, it delivered 68% greater reach than commercial ads. Also, compared to commercial ads, the Facebook campaign resulted in 8.5% lower cost purchase and 8.5% higher online purchases.
2. The Chocolate Factory Thailand
The Chocolate Factory Thailand is a restaurant that offers a wide selection of chocolate sweets and desserts, as well as pizzas, salads, and steaks.
Their Objective
The Chocolate Factory Thailand had to shift its focus from offline sales to online sales due to COVID-19 safety measures and therefore, wanted a simple billing solution, responding to customers, and analyzing its business data.
Approach & Solution
The Chocolate Factory Thailand teamed up with Facebook Marketing Partner Page365 to manage its e-commerce business as well as engage with customers on Facebook. Page365 simplified the order management process for The Chocolate Factory Thailand by letting people place their orders and pay within Messenger, thereby giving the restaurant a single platform for handling Facebook orders and shipping.
When customers commented on The Chocolate Factory Thailand’s Facebook posts to order a meal, a Messenger conversation would pop up automatically. The automated flow via Messenger would confirm the order, process it, generate a bill, and accept payment.
The campaign was targeted at customers between the ages of 20-50 living in Thailand, who were interested in chocolate and baking.
The Result
The Facebook campaign was a massive success for The Chocolate Factory Thailand and turned out to be a major revenue generator for the brand. The campaign resulted in an over 50% increase in its sales, which translated into a 30% hike in revenue. Also, it led to a 20% increase in customers.
3. McDonald’s Singapore
McDonald’s is highly popular in Singapore with a large base of 136 local outlets and its very own home-delivery mobile app, McDelivery.
Their Objective
McDonald’s sought to drive engagement and ultimately boost foot traffic to its restaurants in Singapore.
Approach & Solution
The burger brand launched a new app to make it easier for its customers to connect with it digitally. McDonald’s then promoted it with an app install campaign using mobile-first video and photo ads, testing a series of variations to identify the best-performing ads.
While some of these ads featured special promotions, others offered discounts on food items if people downloaded the app. All the ads used both the “Install Now” call to action, thereby, directly linking people to the app store. McDonald’s also teamed up with Facebook Creative Shop, using its best practices to create assets that were tailored for mobile viewing.
The Result
McDonald’s Singapore’s Facebook campaign performed outstandingly well to generate 18% incremental app installs and 26% lower cost per install. Also, 25% of total app installs came from Facebook and Instagram.
Bottom Line
With almost 2.8 billion active users, Facebook viewership accounts for nearly 40% of the world’s population. Therefore, it can give brands access to a highly diverse audience. However, brands need to identify their core audience and strategize in such a way that they can reach out to them effectively. Regardless of their size or the industry that they’re operating in, there’s no dearth to what companies can achieve as long as they have the right strategy in place.