In Quebec, young adults represent over 50% of QSR consumers. Yet, they are very hard to reach and engage because they turn their back on Quebec-specific media like television, newspapers and radio. Instead, they consume youth-targeted American and international online and mobile content, thus making it difficult for local brands to stand out amongst global love brands like Coca-Cola, McDonald's or Apple.
With its 100 restaurants and 100,000 customers served daily, QSR chain Valentine is a local underdog amongst the deep-pocketed international competition.
When everybody was talking about healthy eating habits, Valentine decided to fully assume its fast-food category and to invite young adults to earn junk food for free by walking off its calories. The idea was to engage customers through the use of gaming by turning a guilty pleasure into a reward.
And Valentine chose the guiltiest pleasure – Quebec's traditional dish "poutine," which contains 1,100 calories of fries, cheese curds and gravy, more than 50% of the recommended daily calorie intake.
Valentine challenged customers to burn the equivalent number of calories contained in the dish by counting them using a pedometer app in order to get a free poutine.
The app features a self-destructing couponing system, a restaurant locator and an innovative promotional angle that is helping Valentine reach its customers with new offers.
Valentine's "Walk off your poutine" initiative included a microsite, promotional videos, social media, web and mobile advertising as well as PR. The audience was also drawn to the content with field marketing, including events in which people were invited to walk off their poutine using a treadmill.
"Walk off your poutine" became the number one app in Canada in its category in less than a week, ahead of giants Starbucks, 7-Eleven and Urbanspoon. It generated press coverage in top-tier Quebec media as well as social media brand equity for a value of over $150,000. For the first six months of distribution (on the iOS Apple platform only), it generated: 50,000+ downloads, 5,000+ transactions, 300 million+ steps and 10 million+ calories burnt.