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Chick-fil-A · QSR / Restaurant

279.79% total response —
by making direct mail go viral.

How Chick-fil-A combined a plastic direct mail postcard, a personalized micro-site, and one-click sharing across 233 channels to turn a 22% mail response into a 280% total campaign response — and build a 6,000+ contact database along the way.

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  • 279.79% Total campaign response rate
  • 65% Of response from social sharing
  • +6,098 New contacts captured
  • 233 Share channels wired in
The objectives

Two goals. One campaign.

Chick-fil-A came in with a clear brief: grow the customer database, and drive redemptions into specific stores. The question was whether direct mail alone could carry the weight — or if the platform could multiply it.

01

Establish a customer database

Capture first names, last names, emails, birthdays, and demographics at the point of offer redemption — not weeks later via a separate CRM push.

02

Increase store traffic

Move redemptions into the target Covington, LA stores with a two-offer plastic postcard: Free Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich + Free Chick-fil-A Chicken Biscuit.

The strategy

Direct mail as the trigger — social as the amplifier.

Every component was wired into DirectMail.io's platform so one setup drove the entire flow: mail → PURL → micro-site → survey → share → viral response.

  • 01

    Plastic direct mail postcard

    A premium plastic postcard with two perforated offer cards — built to get opened, built to get saved.

  • 02

    Filtered acquisition list

    Sourced and filtered using Chick-fil-A's customer profile plus demographic area around the target stores.

  • 03

    Personalized URL (PURL)

    Every recipient got a unique URL that dropped them into a branded micro-site — no login, no friction.

  • 04

    In-site survey

    Embedded survey gauged interest in an upcoming spicy chicken sandwich. 71.91% said yes.

  • 05

    One-click share module

    233 social networks, email, and SMS — all wired so customers could pass the offer on in a single tap.

  • 06

    Share motivator

    A "Win Free Chikin for a Year" sweepstakes entry that rewarded every share.

“When someone makes a commitment to give you their information and hits submit, they have made a psychological commitment.”

DirectMail.io captured that moment for Chick-fil-A — every form submission flowed directly into a share prompt while intent was at its peak.
The results

The overall campaign produced a 279.79% response.

The platform increased total response 257% over mail alone. 1,875 customers shared the offer, pulling in another 8,000 incoming responses.

22.00% Mail response PURL redemption on mailed list
182.82% Social response Response from shared links
74.24% Direct response Print-your-own offer page visitors
25.75% Store redemption Free offer redeemed in-store
Channel breakdown

Facebook dominated both outgoing shares and incoming response.

The share module let customers post to 233 destinations in one click. Facebook delivered 5× more incoming response than the second-highest channel.

Channel Outgoing shares Incoming response
Facebook 65% 81.2%
Email 22% 3.5%
SMS 6% 0.5%
Twitter 6% 14.8%

Of the 6,098 new database contacts, 71% came from social sharing — not from the mailed list.

Overall we were very satisfied with the promotion. Our redemption rate was above any other direct mail campaign we’d run in the past. It also exceeded our needs of developing an email database.

Rick Gonzalez Chick-fil-A

Want direct mail that goes viral?

The same playbook — mail + PURL + micro-site + survey + share module — is native in DirectMail.io. Bring a list; we’ll show you how to wire it up in a demo.

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