The inaugural Loyalty in the Real World report reveals which burger chains have the most loyal customers, highlights successes, and offers practical insights for competing brands
FORT WORTH, Texas, Sept. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Simpli.fi, the real-world media platform built for the age of immediacy, today released "Whose Cheeseburger Is It?", the first edition of the Loyalty in the Real World report series. In celebration of National Cheeseburger Day (September 18), Simpli.fi analyzed a sample of hundreds of thousands of visitors to the top-20 U.S. burger-focused QSR chains across 20 metro markets over eight weeks, and identified which brands are leading by foot traffic volume and loyalty patterns. Simpli.fi is uniquely built to deliver these insights, processing billions of daily mobile signals that show anonymized movement patterns highlighting foot traffic to real-world locations, combined with digital intent signals such as search and context. This signal-level foundation allows Simpli.fi to determine which customers were loyalists (visitors observed at only one brand during the study period) or simply samplers (visitors observed at two or more).
The study reveals that burger QSR visitors are loyalists, with 61% exclusively loyal to one brand. Few organizations can boast that kind of customer buy-in, but 39% of QSR customers are available to convert into loyalists. This market represents 17 million daily burger purchases, according to research firm Circana, and presents an enormous competitive opportunity for local franchise owner/operators willing to modernize their advertising strategies to capture more foot traffic.
In a battle of the buns, "Whose Cheeseburger Is It?"
- Shake Shack hit a remarkable 99% loyalty rate, where only 1% of its customers visited a rival burger chain during the same timeframe. Wendy's, Smashburger, Sonic and Steak 'n Shake round out the top five. The throughline connecting these brands is that each one offers signature items, such as a Frosty, that don't have a close competitor from other brands. Switching brands is less likely to happen when customers feel there is only one place to get what they're looking for.
- McDonald's is the top competitor to every other brand in the study. While the fast food titan only hits a 60% loyalty rate, it shares significant visitor overlap with all the other leaders in the pack, suggesting it is particularly well positioned to win loyalty from consumers who cross-shop across the category.
- A&W and Dairy Queen were two of the top-three brands with "samplers", customers who visit multiple locations, rather than "dedicated loyalists", customers who stick to one chain. Burgers for these brands are secondary items to their core treats, which may help explain their higher rate of sampling when it comes time to grab a cheeseburger.
- Whataburger is a prime example of a brand navigating rapid expansion, where growth into new markets has coincided with a higher rate of cross-shopping and the second-highest rate of samplers (52%).
With the exception of Shake Shack, the report finds that every brand has an opportunity to grow that loyal base by:
- Defending the loyalists: Leverage first-party loyalty data to target existing customers with dedicated budget while suppressing them from acquisition campaigns.
- Expanding into new meal times: Use daypart and foot-traffic data to identify occasion gaps and serve targeted creative to commuters moving through specific trade areas.
- Focusing on winning the rivalry: Geofence competitor locations to identify active visitors, then use offline retargeting across devices to win over switchers and defend wavering regulars.
- Scaling to every location: Centralize brand guardrails, creative assets, and budgets on a single platform that lets local franchise owner/operators deploy localized campaigns in minutes.
- Measuring what moved: Track real-time foot traffic and revenue attribution across screens to optimize budget allocation while running campaigns.
The full report also analyzed trends in key markets, including Denver, Dallas, Washington D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles. "Whose Cheeseburger is it?" is the first in the ongoing Loyalty in the Real World series that will assess loyalty across various industries to provide brands with insights into the current challenges they face.
To download the report, please visit https://simpli.fi/resources/thought-leadership/burger-day.
*Results reflect the study sample, markets, and measurement period and are not intended to represent all customers or transactions nationwide.
About Simpli.fi
Simpli.fi is the real-world media platform built for the age of immediacy. By unifying digital behavior and real-world movement into a single actionable signal, Simpli.fi enables over 2,000 agencies, advertisers, and media groups to target, optimize, and measure campaigns precisely where consumer decisions happen. Built on the truth that people use digital to navigate the physical world, Simpli.fi is engineered to connect these signals in real time—allowing brands to act on consumer intent the moment it occurs and measure the impact all the way to the door. We thrive on innovation, data-driven results, and a culture of continuous improvement to make marketing more immediate, intelligent, and connected. Simpli.fi is backed by leading private equity firms Blackstone and GTCR.
To learn more, visit Simpli.fi and follow us on LinkedIn.
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