About a year and a half ago, technology company ShiftPixy started developing a ghost kitchen. The delivery-only business would have its own virtual brands, mobile app and loyalty program, and double as a lab for restaurants interested in trying the technology.
To help guide what the business would look like, the company bought troves of customer data from third-party delivery companies to get a better idea of who their likely customers would be. As ShiftPixy analyzed that data, a picture started to emerge: Many of those delivery customers play a lot of video games.
“We’re seeing in the data, when you look at where the spend is, what the cuisine is, what the age bracket is, what emerges is really a gamer profile,” said ShiftPixy CEO Scott Absher.
That discovery ended up shaping the entire venture.
Americans who play video games are a large and growing group. In 2021, there were nearly 227 million gamers in the U.S., according to the Entertainment Software Association—or roughly two out of every three people. Their number has grown by more than 45% since 2015 and encompasses a broad swath of consumers.
“There’s the misconception that it’s just these guys wearing headsets, drinking Red Bull in their bedrooms,” said Jordan Mauriello, founder of MoreYellow, a company that helps connect brands with gaming influencers. “That’s not nearly the case. Your average gamer is 34 years old. Forty-five percent of the gamers in the U.S. are women. So we have this really diverse segment that’s huge, that brands can connect to.”
Source: 2019 Mediahub Scout Custom Gaming StudySome restaurant brands are beginning to recognize the gamer as a distinct consumer type, and are changing their marketing plans accordingly. Chipotle Mexican Grill has been at the forefront of this trend. Its gamer strategy began in 2019, when the fast-casual burrito chain was looking for ways to connect with Gen Z consumers. In the process, it learned that young people were watching less TV and movies and playing more video games.
“This is the new way they’re looking at the world, through the lens of gaming,” said Stephanie Perdue, the chain’s vice president of brand marketing and product innovation.
In fact, the company found that consumers ages 13 to 34 were spending 42% of their daily media time either playing or watching video games. By comparison, they were spending just 10% of that time on social media.
That realization kicked off Chipotle’s efforts to become “endemic” to the gaming world, she said. It began by participating at in-person gaming events, and later started partnering with well-known gamers and establishing a presence on platforms like Fortnite and Twitch, a video game streaming service. It has its own page on Twitch, where it hosts events like the Chipotle Challenger Series, which pits amateur gamers against pros. In June, it became the official limited-service restaurant partner for Twitch’s own /twitchgaming channel.
Some of the brand’s gaming efforts have paid off in a big way. This past Halloween, Chipotle opened a virtual restaurant within the popular gaming platform Roblox. Players who successfully navigated an in-game “Boorito Maze” won a code for a free burrito. The result: Chipotle’s highest digital sales day ever, Perdue said.
“We’re going to be where our fans are, and they happen to be on these platforms,” she said.
Source: ESA, StatistaWingstop is another chain actively courting gamers. When live sporting events became a no-go early in the pandemic, the brand shifted its advertising to digital venues including Twitch.
“Our approach was to capture a huge segment of the population that are heavy QSR users that are not users of Wingstop and convert them to our brand,” CEO Charlie Morrison told investors at the time, according to a transcript on financial services site Sentieo.
Soon after, it released a commercial promoting its boneless wings that riffed on the “boneless dance” popularized by Fortnite, an online battle royale game with tens of millions of players.
It’s no coincidence that the two gamer-friendly brands also happen to be among the industry leaders in digital order volume. After all, gamers attached to their consoles seem like good candidates to order food online.
“They’re digital natives,” Perdue said. “Ordering on an app for mobile pickup or delivery straight to their house makes complete sense. They’re already on their phones, they’re already digitally connected.”
Absher of ShiftPixy made the same connection about gamers and digital ordering. But his company has taken that information several steps further, to the point of actually building its business model around video games.
It created numerous delivery-only brands that are geared toward them. They have names like Dude Rudy and Nacho Nukes, whose namesakes are a surfing shark and a skateboarding wonton, respectively. Then it built a gamified loyalty program designed to appeal to the same demographic. When customers order from Nacho Nukes, for instance, they will activate a Nacho Nukes-themed video game on their smartphone in which they can collect loyalty points to exchange for food. The brands are set to launch this year.
"The whole idea is to capture somebody and capture their attention and their time," Absher said.
The plan may sound a little far-out. But the CEO said ShiftPixy arrived here by following the customer, and he singled out Chipotle for doing the same.
“They know their customer,” he said of the burrito chain. “They have the data, they know who their customer is, and they’re paying attention.”
Eyes on the Brand
One of the first food brands we are launching in 2022, Nacho Nukes. The brand is packed with explosive flavors, just like Nacho's moves, the skateboarder wonton skin mascot.$PIXY#foodies#AugmentedReality#WEB3#Metaversepic.twitter.com/jXOncOhE8O
— ShiftPixy Labs (@ShiftPixyLabs) December 29, 2021
Advertising in and around video games is different from other platforms, said Mauriello of MoreYellow. Consumers “lean in” when they’re gaming, he said, making it a more interactive experience.
“It’s a completely different medium than what we’re doing in social,” Perdue agreed. “It’s less polished, in a sense. There’s a lot more authenticity.”
At this point, Mauriello said, restaurant brands are using gaming platforms mainly as a way to get eyeballs on their brands, since they can’t actually sell food in video games.
“The tricky thing is, conversion is difficult when you can’t convert right there. So really one of the first approaches to build brand awareness,” he said. “That’s what savvy brands are doing right now.”
Chipotle does track sales results in relation to an ad’s performance on platforms like Twitch, Perdue said. But it also looks at softer metrics related to engagement and creating experiences that “charge up” fans.
And Mauriello didn’t rule out the concept of in-game food ordering happening sometime soon—an idea that has come up in recent conversations around the metaverse, an immersive virtual world where people can interact, shop and feasibly order real-life food from digital restaurants. McDonald’s, Panera and other chains have filed trademarks for virtual restaurants that would sell real food ordered within the metaverse and delivered to people's home.
“Ordering in the actual game, I’m sure it’s right around the corner,” Mauriello said.