Mad Mex boosts sales with pioneering real-time data campaign

Vistar Media and Hearts & Science have recently revealed the results of a pioneering campaign for Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) Mad Mex. The campaign marked a first in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), leveraging near real-time store data to optimise outcomes and address footfall challenges.

Faced with prominent competitors in a bustling food court, Mad Mex required more than visibility to attract potential customers. Using digital out-of-home (DOOH) and cutting-edge tech, the programmatic campaign harnessed daily sales data and monthly store performance to activate out-of-home (OOH) media to encourage customer footfall. This novel approach resulted in considerable gains, surpassing previous campaigns by the Mexican food chain.

The results were impressive; a significant 2.9 million Australians saw the programmatic OOH campaign. In addition, stores that showcased the proximity programmatic OOH yielded a 9% overall sales rise and a transaction uplift of 7%. This ground-breaking strategy was able to tackle footfall issues within 24 hours, achieving unprecedented results versus traditional tactics.

Ben Baker, Managing Director APAC, Vistar Media, said that DOOH has evolved into a flexible and agile channel for brands and marketers. "This tech solution enabled Mad Mex to have a significantly longer retail media presence as sites were activated programmatically only when required, ensuring the limited media budget wasn't chewed through, minimising wastage and maximising effectiveness," he said.

The data-driven marketing campaign relied on the versatility of programmatic DOOH. Using everyday store-level sales data, timed and situated messaging was activated to encourage customer visitation when and where it was needed. By considering the stores' monthly performance data, personalised messages were displayed related to taste, health or value, depending on the most influential driver.

Nick Cook, Mad Mex's General Manager of Marketing, commended the notable improvements in performance and expressed satisfaction with the ongoing collaboration. He highlighted their efforts to enhance the utilisation of sales data by incorporating more intricate metrics, not just focusing on overall store sales but also delving into product sales. 

Nick Cook said, "We are working to increase the complexity of sales data used significantly, to not only factor overall store sales but product sales too, increasing store footfall and product sales along the way... We are very excited to see how this solution will evolve and how this use of tech delivers for Mad Mex in the future."

The success of the campaign set a new standard for how Mad Mex will activate its retail footfall communications in the future. Gail Halbert, Head of Client Service Sydney at Hearts & Science, added, "Hearts & Science has always looked to provide the most innovative ideas to our clients, and Mad Mex gave us the opportunity to prove this. The campaign successfully addressed footfall challenges within 24 hours, cutting down sales-to-media-activation lag time, leading to phenomenal results which were previously unachievable through traditional channels."