Games in QSR Apps: Give Users More for Daily Brand Engagement

Quick service restaurant (QSR) apps today are limiting their daily active user count.

Think of your favorite restaurant or coffee shop. Think of it at its peak visitor times – around meal or coffee times. Engagement with the brand or store is restricted to just a few short windows a day – in the best case. 

The QSR brands that do well are those that also draw engagement from consumers outside of the restaurant and meet  them where they are – on their smartphones.

This engagement goes beyond ordering food or service. We see that the opportunity for additional brand loyalty and engagement lies in mobile gaming. The engagement numbers that our team sees are a piece of the pie worth fighting for.

QSR Games Invite Repeat Engagement

Why do mobile games pose untapped potential for QSR brands? An average of 83 minutes is spent playing games on phones out of 180 to 240 minutes of daily screen time. 

There are around 2.2 billion mobile gamers worldwide. There’s therefore a vast market at the intersection of gaming and QSR audiences – especially, among the youngest demographic across all dining categories, who have grown up in a mobile-first environment. 

The mobile gaming community spent a total of 110 billion US dollars on in-app purchases in 2023; this reveals that these users are more than willing to open their wallets for the right experience and could be a promising revenue stream for QSR apps.

At this lucrative intersection between committed mobile gamers and committed consumers is an opportunity to streamline the constant toggling between apps for entertainment, utility, shopping.  

There’s an opportunity for QSR brands to seamlessly connect with their daily engaged users through the power of mobile gaming.

Arcade Delivers Top Mobile Games in QSR Apps

The loyalty solution adjoe Arcade comes as a neat, seamless UX integration within any QSR app. 

Users engage with Arcade’s advertised games and are rewarded in QSR loyalty points. They can earn tangible rewards from their regular gaming achievements – rewards such as discounts or free items. 

This not only keeps customers inside the app longer; it enhances and solidifies their connection with a QSR brand – on a daily basis.

Arcade’s user journey unfolds as follows:

• A customer sees an in-app teaser compelling them to play a mobile game. 
• They choose and play a game, earning the QSR brand’s in-app currency as a reward. 
• They spend the currency on the brand via additional discounts or free items.
• Brands benefit from an interaction or action that might otherwise not have happened.

Our product team has made it so that this gamification looks almost native to apps who integrate Arcade. Customers therefore feel as though they’re interacting with their favorite brand the whole time. Even while playing top games from the world’s most premium gaming companies.

At the end of their gaming session, customers then interact with the QSR’s brand again as they return to the app.

Get Your Customers into Your App

McDonald’s iconic Monopoly campaign has been successfully merging gaming and fast food for decades. Today, this is all happening in the app. The move to a mobile experience happened because it offers:

• deeper and repeat engagement – often daily brand engagement
• increased brand loyalty
• a unique standpoint in a saturated market

It’s a trend happening all across the industry with Chipotle becoming the official launch partner of Street Fighter 6 and KFC joining forces with Diablo IV. Why? Because many restaurants aren’t providing their users much value outside of ordering food. 

Leveraging a successful game has proven to be key in growing interaction with the brand and also enhancing brand perception.

Adam Blacker, the Head of Insights at Apptopia laid it out just right: “Brands should think about the success of the game first, and then figure out how to convert the engagement into something meaningful for them”. 

Interacting with the brand while they’re not in-store is non-negotiable. Games drive users into a brand’s app and push them to interact with the brand in a fun way by earning rewards.

Arcade masters this concept but by adding precision targeting to the equation. 

Instead of a one-size-fits-all game, Arcade delivers a personal gaming experience, handpicked for each customer based on their tastes. This personalized approach means Arcade isn’t just doing what most QSR brands are doing; it’s outdoing them by making every gaming experience uniquely appealing to each user. 

Convert Games into Something Meaningful for Your App 

Arcade delivers games in QSR apps in a way that satisfies consumer cravings for personalized offers and better deals with their favorite brands.

The loyalty solution ensures repeat engagement that’s not bound to a location or a time of day. It empowers customers – wherever they are – to interact with the brand. 

As a QSR app, your team wants to increase customer LTV and engagement to achieve your revenue and retention goals. We know this – which is why we built Arcade to enhance this engagement in a way that excites your customers and contributes to your bottom line.