CorpComms Magazine

Customers visting fast food chains who have been exposed to social media are far more likely to spend more than those consumers who have not, a new survey has revealed.

Visitors to KFC who have experienced the chicken restaurant's social media campaigns are seven times more likely to spend more money than customers who have yet to see a tweet from Colonel Sanders or visit its Facebook page, revealed the Sales Impact Study, conducted by Ogilvy and ChatThreads, while visitors to Wendy's hamburger chain were twice as likely to spend more if they had been exposed to both social media and television advertisements.

Customers who have been exposed to both social media and billboard advertisements are approximately twice as likely to spend more money at a fast food outlet than those customers who are oblivious to the media messages around them.

But those customers who were exposed to social media and news stories or editorials spent 17 per cent more week-on-week on fast food than those who did not. Even television played a role, with consumers who had seen the television adverts for Taco Bell three times more likely to spend more money than their non-television viewing counterparts.

Irfan Kamal, senior vice president of digital/social at Ogilvy, said: 'Much of the work to date has looked at direct channel impacts; for example, do direct clicks from a social media site result in sales? This study attempts to understand the more complex factors that lead to consumer purchase changes. We've found that in the real world, social media exposure - by itself and more broadly when combined with other types of media exposure such as out-of-home, PR or television adverts - is linked with two to seven times higher likelihood of consumption and actual spend increases for some [fast food] brands.'

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