Industry
Fast Food
Challenge
Carl’s Jr. needed to convert cultural buzz around its limited-time Queso Crunch Burger into actual restaurant visits during a period of declining QSR foot traffic.
Results
Proximity-targeted DOOH with dynamic creative drove measurable foot traffic and sales, validating DOOH as a true performance channel.
Key Product
Demand-Side Platform (DSP), Vistar Creative Studio
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Turning cravings into customers
Carl's Jr. had all the ingredients for a successful launch of its Queso Crunch Burger, a mouthwatering new treat brought to life by mega-influencer Alix Earle. But in a competitive QSR category where attention is everywhere, converting buzz into visits is the real challenge. While the limited-time offer could get people talking, getting them to take a bite was the real test.
To meet consumers at the moment a craving could turn into a restaurant visit, Carl's Jr. partnered with Vistar Media and PMG to extend social influence into the physical world through digital out-of-home (DOOH). The campaign activated screens across major U.S. markets, placing the brand directly in the path of hungry consumers.
Proximity on the menu
Carl’s Jr. didn’t scatter screens randomly across cities. The brand zeroed in on proximity, showing up when cravings hit and a restaurant was close by.
Within a three-mile radius of Carl’s Jr. locations across 29 key DMAs, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco, placements followed key commuter, shopping and dining paths.
Billboards | Urban Panels | Spectaculars
In Los Angeles, the strategy expanded. A 15-mile radius extended coverage across the city, while placements near Carl’s Jr. locations were designed to catch people in the right moment and ignite an impulse to act.
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Creative that sells
Each screen became a personalized invitation. Dynamic creative enabled ads to automatically display the distance to the nearest Carl’s Jr. location, making proximity a clear and immediate call to action. Supporting video and static creative reinforced app-based offers and the limited-time nature of the Queso Crunch Burger, adding urgency throughout the campaign.
The campaign also activated on large-format spectaculars, requiring custom creative the brand hadn’t previously produced for these placements. Vistar’s Creative Studio optimized assets for these high-impact placements, ensuring the Queso Crunch Burger could capture attention at scale – an approach carried through to all creative formats to drive action at every touchpoint.
Social and DOOH: The ultimate combo
Carl’s Jr. built the campaign to connect digital attention with real-world action. Social seeded the craving. DOOH was there when it hit – on high-visibility screens, close enough to act on it.
Cultural relevance played a key role in fueling this momentum, rooted in Carl’s Jr. 's long-standing approach to bold, pop-culture-driven storytelling. Through social, Alix Earle brought immediacy and authenticity that resonated with Gen Z, leaning into her craving for queso while playing off the candid energy her followers know and love. Paris Hilton added a nostalgic callback to her 2005-era Carl’s Jr. campaign, nodding to a defining moment in the brand’s history.
DOOH was where Alix's cultural momentum translated into action. Her presence on high-visibility screens ensured the craving she sparked online followed consumers into the real world, turning a passing feeling into an urgent restaurant visit.
Limited-time offer, lasting impact
DOOH bridged the gap between awareness and performance by turning cultural attention into immediate action, as validated through an InMarket sales lift study:
- +75% lift in foot traffic, with 77% of visits occurring within 14 days
- $911,077 in post-exposure purchases
"For this limited-time offer, we wanted to take the cultural momentum we'd built and turn it into real, immediate action. Partnering with Vistar allowed us to lean into precise targeting, dynamic localization and creative built for real-world response, helping us stand out in dense, high-impact urban environments filled with competing messages."
Scott Sutton | Director of Media, CKE Restaurant Holdings, Inc.
In a competitive QSR landscape where converting attention into visits is notoriously difficult, this campaign demonstrated what happens when culture, proximity and creative align.
