Antavo Powers New KFC Rewards Arcade Loyalty Programme in the UK and Ireland
September 8, 2022
The brand-new KFC Rewards Arcade is the latest loyalty programme giving fried chicken fans the chance to win instantly. The programme is powered by Antavo’s Enterprise Loyalty Cloud, providing customers with a personalised, gamified and immersive loyalty experience.
The new Rewards Arcade has replaced KFC’s stamp-based collection programme, allowing people to win instantly and more often. Customer insights suggest that stamp-based systems generate an unfair balance with little personal recognition for customers, rewarding only the most frequent users. However, the Arcade focuses on generosity, surprise and recognition, providing a uniquely different loyalty proposition from their previous programme and that of their competitors.
Customers receive an in-app invite to play after every order over £3 (£7 min order for delivery) and there are 12 fingerlickin’ freebies up for grabs, including: 6-piece Bargain Buckets, Burgers, Wraps, Popcorn chicken and many other tasty prizes.
Creatively themed around a gaming arcade, the app features a vibrant, fun and colourful 3D space. The first game to mark the Arcade’s launch is Hammer Time, a classic arcade-style game where players choose one of three hammers and swing to win by ringing the bell at the top of the tower.
Jack Hinchliffe, CMO at KFC UK & Ireland said “We are so excited to be launching our new KFC Rewards Arcade. We strive to be a business model that is one step ahead of our consumers, and that’s why we’ve transitioned from a stamp-based rewards scheme to a dynamic, modern platform that provides our fans with instant wins. We set out to reinvent the future of loyalty and I feel that’s exactly where we’re headed – I can’t wait for our fans to give the Arcade a go!”
Attila Kecsmar, CEO and Co-founder of Antavo: “We’re thrilled to be working with KFC on a really unique loyalty program that puts actual games at the heart of their program. It puts a fun spin on gamified loyalty programs, while encouraging customers to keep coming back, especially to KFC-owned delivery, and get more chances to win.”
What is Antavo?
Antavo is the AI loyalty and incentives platform that brings together loyalty, promotions, and agentic AI to turn customers into regulars: the customers who come back on their own, buy more often, and bring others with them. For more than a decade, Antavo has powered identity-led loyalty strategies for brands including SKIMS, Paul Smith, KFC, Flying Tiger, and Hyatt’s Inclusive Collection. Marketers build, change, and launch programs and promotions themselves, without waiting on engineering. Learn more at antavo.com.
About KFC
In 1952 Colonel Harland Sanders opened the first KFC restaurant in Utah. Since then, his perfectly crafted Original Recipe chicken and its secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices has become famous all over the world, and today we have over 900 restaurants across the UK and Ireland.
The Colonel was all about doing things the right way. That means our chicken is delivered fresh from farm to restaurant in 48 hours. It’s prepared carefully by hand in-restaurant by trained cooks, using the very best chicken reared to strict welfare standards. In July 2019 we took the next big step in our welfare journey and signed up to the Better Chicken Commitment, a set of six criteria that have been designed to improve the lives of all chickens within the KFC supply chain, by 2026. That’s what makes our food so finger lickin’ good.
The right way also means serving fresh proper food, packed with flavour. So, we’ve worked hard to make nutritional improvements across our menu, so our fans have as much choice as possible, and we’ve committed to removing 20% of calories per serving by 2025.
The Colonel also believed in feeding promise, wherever it’s found. So that’s why we invest heavily in the development and careers of our 27,000 employees – we were the first restaurant to launch an honours degree. And since its 2015 launch, our KFC Foundation has paid out grants totalling £5 million to our charity partners who are passionate about developing and nurturing young people across the country.
To find out more about us visit www.kfc.co.uk, or follow the Colonel on Twitter @KFC_UKI and Instagram @kfc_uki.
Media Contacts
Antavo
Eva Bacsi, Marketing Director
KFC UK
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Frequently asked questions about Antavo
What can brands build with Antavo?
Brands use Antavo to run the whole loyalty and incentives program on one platform: points, tiers, challenges, streaks, referrals, clubs, and rewards beyond discounts; promotions and incentives for members and non-members alike, from bonus points and promo codes to bundles and cart-level offers; and agentic AI built in. Everything runs online, in store, on mobile, and in wallet, and marketers launch it themselves.
Who uses Antavo?
Antavo works with mid-market and upper-mid-market brands across fashion, retail, beauty, travel, hospitality, restaurants, and sports in North America and Europe: multi-market, omnichannel brands with a strong identity and customers worth keeping, including Paul Smith, KFC, SKIMS, Rip Curl, Benefit Cosmetics, and Hyatt's Inclusive Collection.
How long has Antavo been around?
Antavo was founded in 2012 and has been building loyalty programs for more than a decade, with teams across Europe and North America serving brands worldwide.
Why do brands switch to Antavo?
Most loyalty programs get stuck: reduced to a discount engine, generic to customers, or too rigid to evolve. Antavo removes those compromises. Brands get a program that feels unmistakably their own, loyalty and incentives on one platform, and the depth to handle tiers, expirations, refunds, and many markets at scale. Their own marketers run it: a tier change in an afternoon, live when they press the button.
How does Antavo use AI?
Antavo's agentic AI is built in, not bolted on. Two named agents do the work: the AI Loyalty Expert, which turns your ideas into a build-ready program, and the AI Analyst, which turns your data into clear answers and reports. Both work inside Antavo or connect to Claude and ChatGPT, and every answer is grounded in your own program and data.
What does Antavo integrate with?
Antavo is API-first with real-time webhooks and deep pre-built integrations, from Shopify, Klaviyo, Braze, and Bloomreach to the CRMs, CDPs, ESPs, and POS systems you already use. Antavo plugs into the stack you already run rather than replacing it.
