QSR marketing execs shift from discounts to culture, access and experiences
Community and cultural connections are becoming more important than transactional rewards.
QSR marketing leaders are increasingly moving away from discount-led loyalty mechanics and towards culture-driven engagement, exclusive access and experience-based rewards, as brands look to build deeper long-term customer relationships beyond price incentives.
Across the Marketing Panel at the QSR Media UK Redcat Conference & Awards 2026, executives said loyalty strategies are evolving to reflect changing consumer expectations, where relevance, community and cultural connection are becoming more important than transactional rewards.
For Taco Bell, loyalty is being redefined through cultural access and experiential partnerships.
“We've also launched a new loyalty platform, so we had previously points-based platform that you could just redeem as you go, however, we've added an extra layer to that, it's kind of loyalty 2.0 it's called Live Más Club, and it's giving consumers extra kind of culturally relevant access, so we're partnering with music artists,” Lucy Dee, marketing director at Taco Bell UK & Ireland said.
Dee said the aim is to broaden how consumers engage with the brand beyond food purchases.
At Black Sheep Coffee, Georgia Roads, global marketing director said strategic partnerships are being used to reach new audiences and extend brand relevance beyond traditional channels.
“I think it’s something that everyone's looking at the moment to just kind of get outside of the box of where your brand is,” Roads said. She pointed to collaborations designed to connect with younger consumers in particular, including fashion and campus-focused activations.
Meanwhile, Franco Manca is leaning into community-led engagement, where participation and shared experiences drive brand affinity rather than direct discounts.
In January, the brand launched a campaign called Map My Pizza Run, where customers could run in the shape of a pizza and get a pound off for every kilometer that they ran.
David Tester, head of marketing at Franco Manca said the campaign succeeded by embedding the brand within an active community rather than relying on traditional promotion.
“We didn't try to create, we didn't promote salads within that period. we stayed true to what we do, but allowed customers to experience it in a different way,” Tester said.
Itsu, meanwhile, has shifted its social strategy towards content-led discovery, moving away from overt restaurant promotion in favour of food-led storytelling.
“We took a bit of a bold stance on our socials and chose to move away from showing our restaurants,” Annabel Mackie, marketing director at Itsu said.
This approach has driven stronger organic reach and audience growth. “By showing our love and passion for food and recipes, we have gone viral more times in the last six months than we had in the previous years.
Eatphoria highlighted the importance of turning digital acquisition into longer-term loyalty, particularly in a market where aggregator platforms are currently the primary customer entry point.
Olivia Vachon, head of marketing at Eatphoria said the challenge is converting digitally acquired customers into repeat visitors through stronger brand experiences and more targeted engagement. She added that menu design and product relevance play a key role in driving shareable moments.
“You need to think when you create the menu with the ops team, or supply chain team, or the culinary team to find something that's gonna be, unique and really flavor-led, and can bring you virality,” Vachon said.
Across the discussion, marketers said the shift reflects a broader change in how loyalty is being defined, with less emphasis on price promotions and more focus on cultural relevance, participation and long-term engagement.
Whilst discounting remains part of the toolkit, operators said future growth will increasingly depend on how effectively brands can embed themselves into consumer lifestyles rather than simply incentivising repeat purchases.
