The Challenge‍

Oporto sits inside Craveable Brands, the Australian QSR group behind Oporto, Red Rooster, Chargrill Charlie's and Chicken Treat. Like most challenger QSR brands, it runs a lean insights footprint in a category that moves fast: menu launches, LTOs, naming, packaging, value messaging and brand work all happen in tight cycles, and traditional research couldn't keep pace with how the marketing team needed to decide.

The team also faced a sharper, strategic question: value perception. With cost-of-living pressure reshaping where people eat out and fewer customers in the fast food category year on year, Oporto needed to understand the drivers of lapse and where share was leaking. Not in six months, but in time to act on decisions about price, menu and message already in motion.

The Insight‍

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Oporto used Ideally to run a deep-dive into consumer brand and value perception, lapse and market share, doubling the usual sample to around 800 consumers and still getting a full read back in 48 hours. The findings reaffirmed several hypotheses the brand team already held. Rather than feeling redundant, that validation gave leadership the confidence to back strategy with evidence rather than instinct.

The study also surfaced things the team hadn't weighted. Value emerged as central to whether a customer chooses Oporto, returns or defects, with the insight that value isn't price alone. It's the whole equation: including food quality, flavour, menu range, innovation, and the overall experience. The genuine surprise was accessibility. Despite a 225 store footprint, drive-throughs, delivery and an owned app, a meaningful share of consumers didn't see Oporto as easy to reach. That finding wasn't on the team's radar, and it became a clear focus for the year ahead.

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The Outcome‍

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Pre-launch testing stopped being something the team did when it had time and budget. It became how the team worked. Across ten months, Oporto turned Ideally into an always-on capability spanning concept testing, naming, build testing, comms and the consumer brand and value deep-dive. Because the data came from real consumers rather than synthetic personas, and could be cut by state and down to metro level, the team trusted it enough to make real calls.

That confidence showed up in product development:
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1. The Portuguese Crispy Burger, a concept the team had wanted to try for years, was validated and named on-platform before a dollar went into development. The winning name scored 65% on desire and 75% on purchase intent, both above benchmark, with a standout 85% purchase intent among 35-54s and a 92% brand-fit read. The naming test settled it on "crispy," the cue consumers respond to. It launched as one of Oporto's strongest LTO campaigns in years, with earned media and a measurable sales lift.

2. Serradura, a Portuguese dessert kept under its original name on the strength of the read, topped the dessert concept test on desire (72%) and distinctiveness (69%), both well clear of benchmark, with 73% purchase intent. It went on to sell double its forecast.

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The Results‍

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37 ideas explored, 83 questions asked and 6,000+ consumers reached on Ideally in ~10 months.

Pre-launch consumer testing established as a default step in Oporto’s marketing process.

Oporto were able to build a 2-year NPD roadmap backed by consumer validated concepts in a few weeks rather than a few months.

Strategy reaffirmed with evidence; value proposition elevated as a strategic priority off the back of a single deep-dive.

Oporto saw +5.2% growth in the burger category and +21.3% growth in the dessert category during the Crispy Burger + Serradura Dessert campaign (total sales, YoY comparison).