Feast of Legends: Wendy's Is the Latest QSR Brand To Appeal to the Lucrative Gamer Demographic

Wendy’s is offering customers the chance to “rise to defend freshness" with its first tabletop role-playing game (RPG), called "Feast of Legends.” The free game was launched this week at New York Comic Con in partnership with global entertainment brand Fandom and YouTube role-playing series Critical Role. The launch includes a "roll the dice" online generator and a PDF Player's Guide containing rules and guidelines

While this marketing ploy may seem niche to the uninitiated, there are 4.7 million RPG fans across the U.S. and 13.8 million worldwide, according to Google Analytics data cited by Wendy's. The original role-playing game, "Dungeons & Dragons," has seen a revival in recent years.

This isn’t the only time this year Wendy’s has dipped its toes into the gamer pool. The burger chain recently engaged with fans on the hit online game, "Fortnite," creating a Wendy's avatar that entered burger restaurants inside the game's unpopulated cityscape. Wendy's returned to Twitch this summer to play the game with its digital avatar, live-streaming the action to promote the launch of Baconfest.

Wendy's is certainly not the first QSR brand to target the specific yet sizable set of gamers—plenty of other major foodservice chains such as Taco Bell and Burger King have tapped into the $152 billion global gaming market and developed branded video games in the past. Earlier this month, KFC announced the release of a new dating simulator in which players will be able to hit it off with a “young and hip” Colonel Sanders. 

These wacky marketing techniques are becoming more and more common in the foodservice space. As QSR and fast casual brands compete for Twitter followers and the attention of younger generations, it is safe to say that we’ll continue to see creative ways to get customers in the door.