Background
After opening its first all-you-can-eat pizza buffet in Plano, Texas, Cicis built a national following by focusing on value-driven, family-friendly dining. Since 1985, Cicis Pizza has been serving all the pizza, pasta, salad, and desserts you could eat. And over the next forty years, the brand grew through franchising to over 300 locations across more than half the country (30 states).
By 2025, Cicis began exploring a formal loyalty and rewards program that would give members discounts on future meals, birthday perks, and exclusive access to new menu items. Cici's wanted to continue to focus on digital channels that would build up their audience and complement the loyalty program.
Goals
To reach that broader audience, Cicis turned to Kard, the first independent commerce media network.
Using data from over 61 million cardholders, Kard could help Cicis deliver hyperpersonalized cash back offers to young, value-conscious diners (who Cicis could then turn into loyal customers for life).
But new customers weren’t Cicis’ only target. At the same time, the brand wanted to:
- Increase visit frequency and average check size among current guests.
- Reengage past diners with a clear reason to return to their local Cicis.
Solution
To show how cash back offers could help Cicis reach new diners and drive repeat visits, Kard’s account management team designed a year-long campaign, with offers that:
- Gave diners a flat percent cash back on their purchase.
- Appeared directly inside banking and fintech apps popular among Gen Z and Millennial consumers.
- Reached new, lapsed, and existing customers
Results
Putting a simple cash back offer in front of everyday spenders helped Cicis reach diners consistently. Over the course of a year, Cicis’ always-on cash back campaign drove $2.7M in attributed sales, with an average of 2,500 offer redemptions per week.
Performance skewed heavily toward first-time diners. 72% of redemptions came from customers who had not eaten at Cicis before, proving that even a relatively small cash back offer can serve as a powerful incentive to try Cicis for the first time — and keep coming back.
As the Director of Media at Cicis, Justin Whitehead, put it:
“We were focused on attracting new, young, lower-income customers and giving them a clear reason to come back. Kard helped us do that without overcomplicating the experience for us or the end customer.”
In addition to meeting its core goal of attracting new diners, the Cicis Kard campaign also encouraged existing guests to return more often. 28% offer redemptions came from existing and lapsed customers over the course of the campaign. Even better, there was no tradeoff on efficiency. Cicis’ topline ROAS was $11:1.
With a full year of performance data under its belt, Cicis used these learnings to inform the next phase of its rewards and retention strategy.
And they’re not stopping there. The Cicis team is working with Kard to evolve its cash back program, with plans to roll out additional platform features as they come available this year.
