The 10x recipe for ordering direct

We take pride in delivering campaigns that meet real-world business objectives. TRIBAL is one of NI’s biggest names in burgers, and we’ve had the honour of delivering their marketing services since summer 2022. One long-term business objective that we’ve been working towards is reducing (if not eliminating) the need for third party delivery aggregators, like Just Eat, Uber Eats, and Deliveroo. These apps offer the customer a great marketplace of options, but they squeeze margin for businesses by taking a significant commission on every order. Late last year, we led a successful launch for TRIBAL’s own app and web ordering platform and have been working hard ever since to move customers across to ordering direct. In March 2023, direct ordering overtook all third parties for the first time! 

We didn’t spend long celebrating — rather, we set about concocting a campaign to put the final nail in the coffin. Let me tell you about TRIBAL Day.

The Campaign

The Sugar Snap team designed and delivered an online-only campaign called TRIBAL Day to incentivise customers to order directly from our client’s app and website. On TRIBAL Day (Sunday 16th April), burgers were discounted to £5, which appealed to the value-conscious customer. We delivered digital campaign assets to promote the campaign, including: social media, email marketing, and push notifications for app users.

Throughout the day, we gave out gift vouchers for app purchases, merchandise (including TRIBAL branded socks, which are an absolute hit), and refunded random orders. This created real-world excitement and urgency to place orders. 

The Results

The campaign was a massive success! The revenue generated through the app on TRIBAL Day saw a whopping 10x increase on the Sunday average, with only a minimal decrease in average transaction value. In many cases, customers were opting for higher margin add-ons. Moreover, 73% of customers were ordering from the TRIBAL app for the first time, showing that our campaign was successfully moving customers away from third parties.

This was an extremely cost-effective campaign. All the assets used were digital, meaning there were no print costs. Additionally, all social media reach was organic, thanks to our team's hard work in building organic engagement through high-quality social media management. No paid ads were used. As a result, the campaign had an outstanding return on investment (ROI). By utilising kick-ass digital assets and organic reach, we were able to deliver a successful campaign that generated record-breaking sales without breaking the bank.

By 7:45pm, we had to call it quits. All TRIBAL kitchens had reached (or exceeded) order volume capacity. They physically couldn’t take any more orders. A job well done!

Conclusion

This campaign was a game-changer. By incentivising customers to order directly from the app and website, TRIBAL was able to reduce the commissions paid to third-party apps and increase its margin. Three weeks on, direct-ordering accounts for 78% of online orders with hundreds of new customers. Third party app usage is down, with an overall increase in online orders.

At Sugar Snap, we create innovative campaigns that help our clients achieve real-world business objectives. TRIBAL Day is a prime example of how a well-planned campaign can bring in a significant increase in revenue and customer engagement. As a dedicated hospitality marketing team, we’re always keen to hear from owners and operators in the industry who are interested in creative solutions. If you’re interested in finding out more, let’s chat.