Wendy’s New Coupon Gets More Valuable the More It’s Shared on Twitter

Wendy's latest viral marketing campaign is a coupon on Twitter that will get more valuable as more people share it on the social platform within a 24-hour period. The coupon, which can be found at the @wendys account on Twitter, has a sliding scale that shows how discounts on its breakfast menu increase as more people retweet the offer. 

The first 100 retweets are good for 10% off any Wendy's breakfast order of more than $15 in the UberEats app, and 5,000 retweets increase the offer to 30% off. Wendy's is offering 44% off for 44,444 retweets and 99% off for more than 3.3 million retweets — the same number of its Twitter follower account. 

“If you wanna pay full price for breakfast this week, ignore this tweet,” the post said.

Creating a coupon that gets more valuable with each retweet is a novel way to engage a brand’s followers while extending the organic reach of the marketing campaign. Wendy’s effort looks to use the viral power of Twitter's retweet functionality to broaden the reach of the coupon, especially among younger consumers. As of the morning of Oct. 13, the coupon had received more than 10,000 retweets, putting it on course to hit the 30% off mark. A sudden surge in retweets could push the discount to its next threshold, though the 3.3 million mark seems unlikely.

This isn’t the first time the franchisor has urged customers online to spread its messaging in a viral campaign. Last year, Wendy's promised to bring back its popular spicy chicken nuggets if Twitter users responded to its challenge to "like" a tweet more than 2 million times. The tweet easily reached that number of likes, and Wendy's subsequently offered free orders of the menu item to Twitter users who used a special code in the DoorDash delivery app. Before that, Wendy's broke Twitter records with its #NuggsForCarter push that challenged a customer to get 18 million retweets for a year of free chicken nuggets.

Over the past few years, Wendy’s has set itself apart on Twitter with a millennial-focused, anti-corporate voice. The brand's Twitter bio sums up its presence on the platform pretty well: “We like our tweets the same way we like to make hamburgers: better than anyone expects from a fast food joint.” 

Now, with this UberEats partnership, it appears that Wendy’s is leveraging this online popularity to emphasize the importance of delivery for QSR chains in a post-pandemic world. Delivery helped double Wendy's digital sales last quarter, and the company has partnerships with all major delivery services.

It's not only delivery that Wendy’s is promoting, it's also the breakfast daypart. Wendy's launched its breakfast menu nationwide in March, right before the pandemic. With fewer people commuting to work and school, the outlook for its breakfast business looked less than promising. However, breakfast has become an unexpected bright spot for the burger chain, making up eight percent of total sales in Q2, according to a quarterly report. Wendy's positive results from its breakfast menu contrast with the sales pressures faced by chains including McDonald's, Dunkin' and Starbucks, CNN reported. Now, with this viral marketing campaign, the chain is doubling down on its breakfast success.

With an overwhelming amount of oversaturation when it comes to social media marketing campaigns, 

Wendy’s has been on the forefront of innovation for a while now. With COVID-19 adding pressure in every realm, this new kind of viral marketing campaign may be what brands need if they hope to stand out in the crowd.