The restaurant franchise industry has turned to collaborations with domestic and international sports teams to activate their own applications (apps). They aim to increase the use of their apps by launching products using sports team intellectual property (IP) or holding events like ticket giveaways linked to games.
On the 13th, Genesis BBQ Group, which operates the chicken franchise BBQ, stated that after launching the 'Golden Ticket Festa' event for providing sports game tickets on the 10th of last month, the cumulative number of app users increased by six times compared to before the event. The number of new app sign-ups is ten times higher than the monthly average from the previous year. During the same period, app traffic increased by more than eight times.
The Golden Ticket Festa is an event offering customers who use the BBQ app a chance to win tickets to the Seoul match of 'FC Barcelona,' ranked as one of the top soccer teams in Spain's La Liga, until the 25th. For this event, BBQ has secured 30,000 tickets for the game.
An industry source noted, "Currently, we are providing ticket giveaway opportunities to all customers, including those using our app, delivery apps, and visiting physical stores, but initially it was targeted at customers using our app," adding that it appears to be a clever strategy to increase app usage.
SPC's bakery brand Paris Baguette is implementing a similar strategy. Paris Baguette formed an official partnership with 'Tottenham Hotspur,' a team in the English Premier League where Korean national team captain Son Heung-min plays. Based on this, from the 4th to the 31st of this month, they will hold an event offering the chance to win tickets to home games for the 25-26 Premier League season for customers placing pickup orders and in-store payments through their app.
In addition to the tickets, Paris Baguette plans to randomly provide customers with three types of Tottenham merchandise, including a photo ball, multi-gym colors, and mini umbrellas, as well as cakes featuring stickers of Tottenham Hotspur players.
Office worker Park Won-ho (32) said, "I have been a Tottenham fan for 12 years, and I thought it would be nice to receive either a ticket or some merchandise, so I downloaded the Paris Baguette app (hereafter referred to as the PABA app)," adding, "I order bread or coffee from the PABA app every morning on my way to work."
As delivery app fees have increased recently, the franchise industry analyzes that companies are aiming to strengthen their apps by targeting the loyalty of sports fandom.
In fact, strategies for securing loyal customers utilizing sports fandom are being diversely employed throughout the retail industry. Korea's leading e-commerce platform, Coupang, launched its own online video service (OTT) 'Coupang Play' to enhance the loyalty of its paid membership 'Wow Membership,' while actively engaging in sports-related marketing.
Coupang has improved loyalty by holding events such as the 'Coupang Play Series,' which includes broadcasting all matches of the four major European leagues and the K League, as well as inviting famous European soccer clubs to Korea for friendly matches. As a result, it is reported that customers did not leave even after the membership price was raised from 4,990 won to 7,890 won last year.
There are voices in the industry stating that a consistent strategy like Coupang's is necessary. Lee Eun-hee, an emeritus professor of consumer studies at Inha University, noted, "The key is how much more benefits consumption through our app gives compared to using delivery apps," adding, "If we cannot ultimately induce the loyalty of sports fandom, who consume specific products to secure merchandise or tickets for their favorite teams, our app will inevitably become obsolete. It is time to consider benefits that only our app can provide."