Innovation Spotlight: Wendy’s Frosty Swirls & Fusions

Welcome to Innovation Spotlight! Each month we’ll spotlight a brand that’s capitalizing on a current consumer trend with a new product innovation.

This month we researched Wendy’s Frosty Swirls & Fusions, Wendy’s latest expansion of its classic Frosty. Read on to get our analysis of the product's in-market potential, the audiences it appeals to, as well as what you can learn from it to innovate smarter.

Just in time for summer this year, Wendy’s has released two new types of frosty: Swirls and Fusions. Frosty Swirls add sauces to the iconic frosty base of chocolate or vanilla, while Frosty Fusions add sauces plus mix-ins. 

There are a total of six new flavors, three Swirls and three Fusions: 

• Strawberry Frosty Swirl

• Brownie Batter Swirl

• Caramel Frosty Swirl

• Pop-Tarts Strawberry Frosty Fusion (strawberry sauce with chunks of strawberry-flavored Pop-Tarts pieces)

• Oreo Brownie Frosty Fusion (brownie batter sauce mixed with OREO cookie pieces)

• Caramel Crunch Frosty Fusion (sweet caramel sauce and toffee pieces)

Wendy’s CMO Lindsay Radkoski said of the new release: "Frosty has been on Wendy's menu for 55 years and is one of the most iconic frozen treats in American culture. We're expanding on our beloved Frosty so when a sweet tooth strikes, the choice is easy for consumers: It's Gotta Be Wendy's. We know consumers are always on the lookout for new flavors and ways to customize their order with sauces and mix-ins. We can't wait for everyone to experience even more ways to enjoy our iconic Frosty!"

The frosty was one of the first five items on the original Wendy’s menu in 1969. For decades it came in just one flavor: chocolate blend — a mix of chocolate and vanilla flavors, specifically designed to pair with the savory food on the Wendy’s menu. 

So it was a big deal when Wendy’s introduced the vanilla frosty in 2006. Since then, the fast food chain has introduced a few limited-time flavors in the last few years, but Swirls and Fusions are the biggest expansion of the frosty line ever. 

This move allows them to compete more directly with other chains that offer ice cream with mix-ins, and gives customers more opportunities to customize their frosty orders. 

As fans of the Wendy’s chocolate frosty since childhood, we were excited about this new development. But how did consumers react? Let’s find out!

1. Innovating on a classic is a bold move that can pay off: If it’s not broken, don’t fix it — that’s advice that Wendy’s has mostly followed when it comes to the frosty over the last 50 years. While the frosty exists to pair with the restaurant’s savory items, this new direction gives Wendy’s something customers may order alone, and allows it to compete with other ice cream competitors. It can be risky to innovate on a classic, as you don’t want to damage the reputation of the original product. But consumers see Swirls & Fusions as making total sense on the Wendy’s menu, and they’re excited by it!

2. Growing ticket size and order frequency: With tariffs and inflation putting pressure on consumers’ wallets, eating out is an area where people are cutting back. Wendy’s is likely hoping this new innovation will increase how much people spend at the restaurant — rather than replacing what customers already spend at Wendy’s. Our analysis shows that this is likely to happen, as the new frosty flavors are incremental to the current Wendy’s menu. 

3. Broad appeal: Very often in our Innovation Spotlight analyses we see some consumer segments showing more interest in a new product than others. But with Frosty Swirls & Fusions, we don’t see a lot of differences among groups. That’s a key reason behind the great scores we see across the board for Frosty Swirls & Fusions — they appeal to just about everyone!

Frosty Swirls & Fusions fall in the top 5% of QSR innovations in the US on both breakthrough potential and trial potential — putting it in the “scale and sustain” section of our concept potential assessment framework.

That’s an incredible result for this new menu item!

Let’s unpack more about why this innovation scores this way.

We use two key measures to determine breakthrough potential:

1. How different a product is (distinctiveness)

2. How superior a product is compared to what’s already available in market (advantage)

Frosty Swirls & Fusions are seen as significantly more distinctive than other US QSR innovations (Distinctiveness T2B: 72.7% vs 66.5% norm). Males, adults under 45, those who eat fast food at least 2-3 times a month and those who have eaten at Wendy’s in the last 3 months feel it is significantly more distinctive compared to the norm.

Frosty Swirls & Fusions are also seen as significantly better than other options on the market (Advantage T2B: 65.1% vs. 53.3%) by nearly all groups we looked at.

With a high breakthrough score of 98, it’s no surprise that this innovation is seen as significantly different and better than alternatives on the market! 

Furthermore, it’s important to consider that the frosty menu item has been around for over 50 years, with very few changes made to it in that time. Do consumers believe that Wendy’s can credibly deliver Swirls & Fusions with its core frosty product? The answer is yes: People believe that Wendy’s can deliver the claims it makes with its Swirls and Fusions (Brand Believability T2B: 87.3% vs. 80.6%). 

Over two-thirds of respondents said they would be likely to purchase Frosty Swirls & Fusions if they were available at a reasonable price (Purchase Likelihood T2B: 76.5% vs. 62.6% norm) — and that number stays fairly consistent across the segments we looked at. 

Adults above 45 have the lowest purchase likelihood (71%) and those who eat fast food at least once every 2-3 weeks have the highest (83%).

Importantly, Swirls & Fusions are incremental to the Wendy’s order frequency (Impact to Parent Brand Order Frequency: 65.3% vs. 54.9% norm) — which means that customers are likely to add these new frosty treats to their existing order or order from Wendy’s more often because of the new frosty flavors, rather than replace what they regularly order.  

What about each individual flavor? Most of the flavors scored well in purchase likelihood, with the Brownie Batter Swirls coming out on top with 64% of people saying they would be likely to purchase and only 19% saying they would not. Strawberry Pop-Tart Fusions was the least popular flavor, with only 47% saying they would be likely to purchase it and 29% saying they would likely not purchase.

Respondents were enthusiastic about the wide variety of innovative flavors, with particular excitement for options like brownie, caramel, OREO and strawberry and less excitement for the Pop Tarts flavor. Many also appreciated the creative twist on a familiar classic, and found the clear, appetizing descriptions and visuals highly engaging.

Respondents said things like: 

• "I love the addition of different candies in the frosty. For so long, frostys have just been the ice cream, so adding these mix-ins should help Wendy's and certainly take the frosty to the next level."

• "The classic frosty flavor being mixed with other flavors it's a great idea. I enjoy the original chocolate frosty but having it mixed with caramel or brownie batter sounds so appealing to me."

• "I like the fact that they are making the frosty more like offerings at Sonic, Dairy Queen, and Arby’s. There are people who like plain ice cream but toppings make it so much more appealing."

• "I like the various flavors. I also like the two different styles being offered. It is nice to have smooth or chewy options."

• "I like the various options that allow me to spice up my frosty like oreo cookies and the brownie batter."

And finally, it’s clear from the occasions respondents said they would order Frosty Swirls & Fusions for that these new flavors are viewed as an indulgent treat, to be consumed as a a reward (49%) or guilty pleasure (35%) or in times of celebration (20%) or comfort (27%).  

We can’t wait to try every single one of these! And after over 50 years of the Wendy’s Frosty, we’re excited to see this major advancement — showing us that it can be very successful to innovate on a classic. 

But that’s not something that should be taken lightly, because you don’t want to damage the reputation of the classic product. Zappi’s connected Innovation System makes identification, assessment and testing of such cases much easier. Get a demo to learn more.

And to make sure you never miss one of our Innovation Spotlights, subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter.