Jack in the Box is pairing free food with mobile convenience to build excitement for a new menu item via a coupon offer that is also driving the conversation around a new marketing campaign.

The integrated campaign underscores how to use mobile to activate a marketing campaign and drive consumers into locations to redeem an offer and potentially make a purchase at the same time. An ad highlighting the chain’s offer of 1 million free burgers aired during the Super Bowl game on Sunday night.

“Because consumers have specifically requested these Jack In The Box coupons and they will always have their mobile phone with them, redemption rates should be very high and therefore a great way to introduce a new menu item,” said Dan Slavin, co-founder and CEO of Codebroker.

“That said, I think Jack In The Box would have had a better overall redemption rate if they were able to return the coupon immediately after the request to help the consumer to make the connection between, request, delivery, and redemption,” he said.

“Also, Jack in The Box is using this promotion as a way to sign up new customers to their promotional marketing list which is always a good idea. This type of promotion is a great example of where one-time-use mobile coupons can be used to ensure that consumers only receive and redeem one coupon.”

Declaration of Delicious
Jack in the Box is announcing ingredient changes to 29 menu items and introducing the brand-new Double Jack burger. To drive awareness and trial of the menu items, Jack in the Box has unveiled the Declaration of Delicious marketing campaign, which includes an ad recreating George Washington crossing the Delaware River with burgers in tow.

The ad announces that Jack in the Box is giving away 1 million free burgers and encourages consumers to visit the site jackinthebox.com to sign up and receive a coupon, which will be delivered via text or via email.

To redeem the coupon, consumers must show it on their phone or bring in a printed version. Guests have a week to redeem the coupon or until 1 million burgers have been sold.

The campaign includes a social media component as well, using the hashtag #DeclarationOfDelicious.

The brand is active on YouTube, Vine, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Mobile coupons
Mobile coupon adoption continues to grow as retailers and brands get more innovative, helping drive higher redemption rates than for paper coupons, according to Koupon Media’s Mobile Coupons: State of the Industry 2016 report. Gamified scratchers, 30-day promotions, redeemable display ads and TV marketing are just some of the ways marketers are boosting their mobile coupon efforts (see story).

Given the growing popularity of coupons on mobile, some marketers are taking a mobile-only approach.

For example, Whole Foods recently introduced digital coupons that are exclusive to its iPhone and Android phone applications, enabling shoppers to show a bar code at checkout to automatically apply eligible discounts (see story).

“When consumer are given the choice to receive coupons via email OR SMS as in this Jack In the Box coupon, typically more than 40 percent will select SMS,” said Mr. Slavin. “This percent has been growing steadily every year for the past give years.

“Regarding printing an email delivered coupon versus showing a coupon on a mobile phone, we have seen that approximately 70 to 80 percent of the total emailed coupons will be viewed on mobile phones versus 20 to 30 percent viewed/printed on the desktop,” he said.