August 27, 2024
Most people judge a new restaurant based on two factors: The quality of the food and the experience. By experience, I mean the ambiance as well as the service.
Quality, experience, and service are probably not top of mind when you think of a fast food restaurant, but the restaurant industry as a whole - from fine dining to quick service - is turning to emerging technologies to improve all three.
Restaurants have been exploring XR in particular to simplify ordering, build brand awareness, improve staff training, reduce turnover, stand out from the competition, and more. Here are five examples of fast food and other restaurant chains implementing extended reality.
McDonald’s
The fast food giant just launched its own metaverse “My Happy Place” in Singapore. The in-app virtual world allows Singaporeans to build virtual burgers, play multiplayer games, and earn rewards. Though the project will only be live for a month, it’s serving as a litmus test for future deployments and yet this isn’t McDonald’s first foray into “the metaverse.”
In 2022, McDonald’s filed a patent to operate “a virtual restaurant online featuring home delivery.” The following year, the company’s Hong Kong “arm” spearheaded a “Web3 activation” in metaverse platform The Sandbox to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Chicken McNuggets.
It may seem odd for a fast food chain or food and beverage brand to launch something “in the metaverse,” where you can’t (yet) eat, drink or smell, but McDonald’s isn’t alone. From a Taco Bell-hosted wedding in the metaverse to 7-Eleven’s Slurpee NFTs, there has been a flurry of such experimental activity with few reported results.
Bareburger
Way back in 2018, Bareburger launched an augmented reality Snapchat campaign to target people living near its 40+ restaurants around the world. Taking advantage of Snapchat’s then-new Lens Studio, Bareburger ran a contest giving away free burgers, fries, and shakes to those who scanned “Snapcodes” received in takeout bags.
To redeem the prizes, customers had to post a Snapchat story using Bareburger’s AR filter and bring their Snapcode to any chain location. Using the same code, users were able to visualize menu items before ordering and could even picture portion sizes and ingredients.
Bareburger initially turned to Snapchat to cut spending on traditional advertising channels like TV and billboards. Though the 2018 contest ran for just a week, the AR menu remained live on the brand app for some time.
More recently, Denny’s released a similar AR menu allowing customers to see their food before they order.
Chipotle
Last year, Chipotle launched and promoted its “Lifestyle Bowls” with a Snapchat AR lens. Intended to cater to health-conscious consumers - specifically Gen Z and Millennials who are most likely to count calories and prioritize clean eating - the lineup of food bowls was made available exclusively through digital channels.
A corresponding “wellness” AR lens launched on Snapchat on January 13 - the day most people abandon their New Year's resolutions - and encouraged users to exercise and meditate with “Chipotle-inspired” prompts.
Five Guys
In 2023, Five Guys worked with ARuVR to pilot immersive training as part of a larger effort to improve continuity between stores. For a fast food chain like Five Guys, continuity means that every customer gets the same quality burger and french fries no matter the location. Training is integral to achieving this.
Compared to its traditional learning materials, Five Guys was looking for more “functional,” “fun,” and “interactive” training for new hires and continuing learners alike. Enter VR or immersive hands-on, in-store training modules to help crew members and managers “know exactly what they’re doing as quickly as possible.”
Five Guys expressed that it fully intended to roll out the program on VR headsets in the future, and would explore additional virtual training scenarios.
Wendy’s
Around 2020-2021, Wendy’s piloted NSF EyeSucceed on hands-free smart (AR) glasses for quality assurance. The training and remote work AR solution was designed to help quick service restaurants keep pace with “rapid hiring” and increased customer demand while maintaining quality and consistency.
According to Wendy’s, incorporating AR into its suite of quality assurance tools resulted in greater efficiency in food safety and supplier oversight, “from product evaluations to audit improvements,” as well as time and cost savings. Especially helpful during the pandemic, EyeSucceed was used to overcome travel restrictions and deepen supplier relationships by connecting disparate sites.
Wendy’s ultimately reported positive feedback from both employees and partners.
Bonus: Honeygrow & KFC
Around 2017, several restaurant chains toyed with VR for recruiting, training, and retaining employees. Honeygrow and KFC were among them, hoping to make what many view as “low-level boring” jobs seem more cutting-edge and exciting.
In a trial, Honeygrow incorporated VR into the first two days of training: Candidates took virtual tours of Honeygrow restaurants and played a food safety-themed game, both of which contributed to increased retention. KFC used a VR training game in which new hires completed the chain’s five-step cooking process to escape a locked room and add some fun to the training process.
Bonus: Papa Johns
On the Friday before the Super Bowl last year - one of the busiest weekends for food orders - Papa Johns launched an AR eGift campaign in partnership with Shaq’s Fun House and “presented by” Netspend. The WebAR technology was developed by a company called Videobomb and the activation facilitated by an agency in Nashville.
In the experience, customers pointed their smartphone cameras at a regular dollar bill to make it come to life. This triggered the promotion at the heart of the campaign, inviting users to sign up to receive a $10 eGift for Papa Johns. In this way, the brand turned an everyday physical object into a digital advertisement and met consumers where they already are–on their phones.
Image source: Adweek
