Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken new packaging features a call-to-action for GiftAMeal.
Driving Guest Engagement
Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken is also amplifying its community footprint through its partnership with GiftAMeal, a program that turns guest engagement into local food bank donations. Customers can scan a QR code at any of Lee’s 130 locations or upload a photo via the Lee’s mobile app to trigger a meal donation.
“For big national brands there is no shortage of ways for them to help communities across the country. And there’s no shortage of big national brands,” he said. “For smaller regional brands like us, it gets to be really challenging because without that big national footprint, how do we make sure that the efforts that we’re doing impact the communities where we do business and where our customers are?”
With GiftAMeal, Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken found a way to give back to their communities.
“The thing that got me most excited about GiftAMeal is being able to direct the impact back into the local communities where it came from. There’s nothing else I found that could help us do it at that level,” Sokolik said.
For example, when guests at Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken in Bardstown, Kentucky, participate in GiftAMeal, a food bank in that area gets those donations.
Off-Premises Opportunity
To date, about 2.5 million meals have been donated through GiftAMeal. Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken signed on in July 2022; its guests are photographing more than 75,000 meals per year. The program’s visibility received a significant boost when Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken began printing QR codes and calls-to-action directly on its rebranded packaging, reaching its drive-thru customers.
“I can have all these pretty signs and merchandising inside the restaurant, but we know between 70 and 80% of our customers are picking up their food in the drive-thru,” Sokolik noted. “Adding the GiftAMeal QR Code and call-to-action on our boxes, cups, and side item containers was a game-changer in elevating our analytics and participation.”
