Wingstop App Adoption and Usage Soars Above Peers On Paid Advertising Push

Key Takeaways:

• Per ST data, Chick-fil-A had the bulk (52%) of US MAU share in the chicken chain cohort in 3Q24, though this is down significantly from just a few years ago when its competitors were much less mature in the mobile app space. Chick-fil-A’s 3Q24 MAU share is down 14ppts vs 3Q20, compared to +11ppts for Wingstop, and -2ppts, -1ppts and-1ppts for Popeyes, KFC and Zaxbys, respectively

  • Potentially driven by paid advertising, rising store counts and word-of-mouth marketing, Wingstop outpaced its peers in both mobile app adoption and user growth over the past few years. From 3Q23-3Q24, Wingstop US mobile app downloads increased an average of 60% YoY, per quarter, compared to 36% for Raising Cane’s, 17% for Chick-fil-A, 16% for Popeyes and -44% for Zaxbys

  • Wingstop had the highest penetration of app downloads from paid sources in Jul’24-Aug’24 at 11%, more than 2x that of Raising Cane’s (5%), Chick-fil-A (4%), Zaxbys (4%) and Popeyes (2%)

• Per ST Audience Insights data, Chick-fil-A appeals heavily to women as 54% of US users were women in 3Q24, vs 34% for Popeyes, 36% for Wingstop, 38% for Canes and 40% for Zaxbys. This could represent a significant strategic opportunity for competing chicken chains to launch user acquisition campaigns, in-app games or features geared towards female audiences

• In 3Q24, the term “app” was Chick-fil-A’s eighth most mentioned term in all of its US creatives. On the other hand, “app” didn’t crack the top twenty most mentioned terms in any of the creatives run by Popeyes, Wingstop, Raising Cane’s or Zaxbys

  • One of Wingstop’s top terms mentioned in US creatives in 3Q24 was “boneless”, with three out of its top ten ads by US spend containing the term. This is likely an attempt to highlight its boneless meal deal, with the company trying to appeal to price-conscious consumers in the wake of elevated costs

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