Carl's Jr., Hardee's Bring Loyalty Punch-cards into 21st Century

CKE Restaurants, Inc., parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s restaurants, announced the launch of Happy Star Rewards, a GPS-enabled loyalty program that rewards users for checking in at Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s locations across the U.S. The application, available for iPhone and Android smartphones, combines location-based check-in technology with rewards.

“In a nutshell, what we’re doing is dragging the antiquated punch-card type of loyalty programs into the 21st century,” says Brad Haley, executive vice president of marketing for Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s. “We are not only offering a GPS-driven check-in app to keep track of customer visits digitally, but we are offering guaranteed rewards, a restaurant locator, a social media interface, streaming videos, menus, nutritional information and more.”

 

Users who download the app, available on the iTunes App Store or Android Market, can visit any Carl’s Jr. or Hardee’s location and check in to start earning rewards immediately. To use the app, a guest simply visits a Carl’s Jr. or Hardee’s restaurant and checks in. The first check-in and every subsequent fourth check-in earns the user a spin on The Wheel of Awesome, a unique Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s rewards application already present on both brands’ Facebook pages. Once the wheel has been activated, users spin it with their finger for a chance to win discounted and free menu items, branded gift cards, prizes and merchandise from participating partners.

 

Partner prizes currently include Sony electronics and movie tickets to the upcoming film The Green Hornet. These partners and prizes will be updated throughout the year. When a user checks in but has not earned a wheel spin, they can receive a coupon for a currently featured item, such as $1 off Hand-Breaded Chicken Tenders. Reward offers increase in value with the frequency of use. The more a user checks in using the app, the higher value offers they will be able to receive on The Wheel of Awesome.

 

After a user has received a coupon, they have the option to save the coupon for seven days, or redeem the coupon immediately either in-store or at the drive-thru. If the user selects the “redeem” button, they have 30 minutes to present the coupon displayed on the screen to a cashier. After presenting the coupon, users press “done” to complete the process. Then they have the option to share the experience with friends by posting on Facebook and Twitter. For non-coupon prizes, the user is prompted to enter additional information in order to set up delivery of the prize. Check-ins are limited to a maximum of three per day and are also limited to one per daypart (breakfast 5:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m., lunch 10:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. and dinner/late night 5 p.m. – 5:30 a.m.). Additionally, fans now have the option to transfer coupons from The Wheel of Awesome app on Facebook directly to their mobile phone to redeem.

 

Happy Star Rewards also integrates with all existing Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s digital communities — offering the same look and feel of the brands’ Facebook pages, streaming YouTube videos, and providing a real-time content feed from Facebook and Twitter streams. Users can also cross-post their location check-in on Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare all from the application.

 

Los Angeles-based 72andSunny worked with CKE Restaurants to conceive, develop and execute the app completely in-house.