A&W: Driving new and returning guests to increase same-store sales

The goal

Iconic brand A&W sought to stay true to their heritage while also shepherding their marketing firmly into the digital age. Their goal was to increase same-store sales with a solution that drove measurable results for their franchisees.

The results

With Cardlytics’ help, A&W experienced a record-breaking year. Cardlytics increased same-store sales by driving close to 250,000 purchases at A&W restaurants from new and lapsed guests. The campaign netted a $3 to $1 incremental return on ad spend. These strong results directly contributed to A&W’s profitability and were validated through Nielsen Sales Lift Measurement.

Beyond the campaign, Cardlytics’ customers continued to deliver long-term value: 45% of lapsed guests and 26% of new guests returned to A&W to make an additional purchase within 90 days.

How it worked

Historically, A&W focused their marketing on local franchisee support, with a few national print circulars each year. To strengthen their national marketing efforts, A&W wanted a more precise and data-driven digital strategy. A&W chose Cardlytics as a digital marketing partner for their ability to provide meaningful insights into guests’ purchase behavior and drive measurable same-store sales.

Our restaurants are getting significant traffic from Cardlytics. Seeing this level of detail — what consumers are spending in our restaurants and how much traffic that’s driving — is groundbreaking.”

Liz Bazner, Director of Digital, A&W Restaurants

By analyzing purchase data from partner banks, Cardlytics identified A&W’s most likely guests based on their restaurant spend. Cardlytics then targeted both new and lapsed customers near A&W’s locations with personalized offers in their online banking channels—successfully driving them to A&W for their all-American meals.

With that same insight into bank transaction data, Cardlytics proved the effectiveness of the campaign with reporting of exact sales impact on local markets. There was no need for A&W to estimate performance because these were real purchases, made by real people who saw ads in Cardlytics’ platform.

For Liz Bazner, Director of Digital at A&W Restaurants, the results were game changing. “Our restaurants are getting significant traffic from Cardlytics,” said Bazner. “Seeing this level of detail — what consumers are spending in our restaurants and how much traffic that’s driving — is groundbreaking.”

Cardlytics is now the foundation that we’re building everything else on. We feel confident that we’ve got a very solid base strategy in place. Cardlytics has given us peace of mind that we’re doing the right things for the brand.”

In addition, the campaign was easy to execute for all involved. Because Cardlytics manages reward fulfillment, there is zero lift for the local restaurants who operate diverse point-of-sale systems. Just increased traffic. As a result, the Cardlytics campaign was an easy marketing strategy for A&W franchisees to embrace – and continue funding.

“Cardlytics is now the foundation that we’re building everything else on,” said Bazner. “We feel confident that we’ve got a very solid base strategy in place.”