McDonald's serves up beefy holiday promos to drive app traffic (and ease drive-thru guilt)
50-cent Big Macs… for life. As inflation bites into budgets, fast-food giants are unwrapping deals to lure customers. This week McDonald’s kicked off its holiday promos, offering three weeks of perks for its app loyalty members. Last season, McD’s teamed up with Christmas queen Mariah Carey to promo 12 days of freebies for app users. This year the McFlurry icon is offering deals like $0.50 Big Macs and a chance to win free food for life. It’s a tasty strategy:
- McDonald’s loyalty program has 25M+ US members, despite launching just last year. For reference: Chipotle has 30M loyalty members and Starbucks has 28M.
- Nearly two-thirds of McD’s US members had used the app in the three months leading up to September. Last quarter, digital transactions made up half of McDonald’s sales.
The (loyal) consumer combo… From IHOP to Taco Bell to Panera, fast-casual brands are turning to loyalty programs to drive app downloads and court new customers. Digital orders make up a third of total US restaurant sales, up from less than a quarter prepandemic. 57% of restaurants offer some sort of loyalty club, and 41% of consumers say those programs encourage them to spend. A sweet bonus for brands: they can use customer app data to personalize offers.
Rewards are guilt soothers… Nabbing a free drink at Starbucks makes it easier to swallow the $30 you spent on lattes that month, and hitting the McDonald’s drive-thru rather than eating in is easier when you feel like you’re getting a deal. Like many businesses, McDonald’s has hiked prices to offset rising costs. Now it’s leveraging loyalty to keep customers hungry.