Taguchi + Sushi Sushi
A database drive that overdelivered on expected target by 500%
As part of a strategic initiative to enhance customer engagement and drive brand loyalty, leading Australian franchise Sushi Sushi partnered with Taguchi, a multi-channel marketing and distributed customer engagement platform, to launch a data-driven, CRM-enabled campaign.
With a sharpened focus on leveraging customer insights, Sushi Sushi aimed to accelerate database growth and deploy a scalable, CRM-led communication strategy.
This campaign was a turning point for us.
“We went from digital infrastructure in it’s infancy, to over 25,000 customers in our CRM—practically overnight. What impressed us most was how seamless and engaging the whole experience was, both for our customers and our team. Taguchi helped us prove that with the right approach and a sophisticated platform, we could leap years ahead in just weeks. It’s exciting to think this is only the beginning of our distributed customer engagement approach.”
General Manager – IT, Sushi Sushi
Challenge
Sushi Sushi, with over 170 stores nationwide, was entering a new phase of digital maturity. With plans to enhance its CRM capability, unify customer data, and introduce new digital infrastructure—including an app and loyalty program—the team was focused on building a stronger, more connected customer experience. Key areas of opportunity included:
- Centralising customer data
- Expanding digital communication capability
- Rolling out supporting infrastructure (app and loyalty program)
Solution: A CRM launch disguised as a competition
Rather than wait for backend integrations to catch up, Taguchi proposed a creative, multi-channel prize giveaway campaign—designed to:
Rapidly acquire contacts
Drive customer sign-ups
Integrate with Sushi Sushi’s POS (Task)
Execution
The prize giveaway concept was deliberately simple from the outside: enter to win and get rewarded.
Behind the scenes, however, this campaign became part of Sushi Sushi’s onboarding with Taguchi and the foundation of a full-scale CRM system—designed to gather clean, structured data and trigger automated, personalised communications from day one.
Seamless customer entry
Customer participation began with a Taguchi-powered smart web form, embedded on the Sushi Sushi website and promoted across in-store collateral via QR codes. For broader reach, Meta ads ran in parallel, bringing in new leads through a branded giveaway message.
Multi-stage customer journeys
What set this campaign apart was the real-time, personalised follow-up. Entrants received tailored communications depending on prize eligibility and redemption activity. Taguchi powered all post-entry touchpoints, creating multi-stage journeys that adapted to customer behaviour:
- Entry confirmations
- Weekly prize notifications
- Redemption nudges based on voucher status
- Major prize draw outcomes
- Product offers
This ensured a consistent and rewarding experience for all customers, while enriching Sushi Sushi’s CRM with behavioural data.
Reward design and redemption
The campaign offered minor and major prizes to maintain momentum. Weekly prizes included vouchers for hand rolls, nigiri and bubble teas, while the major draw offered a choice between a huge cash prize or an original painting artwork, with two more secondary prizes. Additionally, unsuccessful weekly winners were also sent product offers to keep them engaged. Winners were drawn using Taguchi’s in-platform randomisation engine, ensuring a fair and legally compliant outcome.
As part of the first phase, each online voucher was manually generated, and tracked for redemption, but paired with automated reminders for unredeemed offers. These micro-conversions helped Sushi Sushi understand which rewards resonated most at a product level.
Integrations
From a technical standpoint, this campaign represented a complete integration of systems:
- CRM, POS, and smart forms operated in real time
- Meta ads & website coverage to amplify reach
- Automated journeys and prize winner selection
- Individual coupon allocation
- Customer store mapping
Results
This campaign exceeded expectations across every key metric.
The goal to attract 5,000 new subscribers was achieved in week 2 with the campaign closing with more than 25,000 sign-ups—a 500% overachievement on target.
With multiple weekly prize options available, transaction data could be analysed to determine the most favourable prize. In this case, Hand rolls were the most popular weekly prize, with redemption rates 30% higher than the next best option. This insight will help determine future campaign prize mechanics.
Subscribers could select their preferred store at sign up. Enriching profile data enabled HQ to analyse store preference counts, giving particular kudos where warranted and perhaps providing additional support to stores which were not achieving campaign targets.
Beyond raw numbers, the campaign proved that the brand could execute fast, personalised, and compliant marketing at scale.
Lessons learned and opportunities ahead
While successful, the campaign revealed a few areas of opportunity. Legal approvals delayed some planned features, like a refer-a-friend mechanic. Future campaigns will benefit from earlier alignment on terms to unlock more creative ideas for accelerated growth and engagement.
The additional inclusion of in-store prize redemption would also enhance the omni-channel experience.
Conclusion
This campaign not only delivered staggering acquisition results—it transformed Sushi Sushi’s CRM future. Taguchi’s multi-channel approach gave Sushi Sushi the tools to build, communicate with, and reward its customers at scale.
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