Engaging the Slice: Gamifying Dodomania for Dodo Pizza's Mobile App

Dodo Pizza is a global delivery brand that has treated its mobile app as a core sales channel from day one. Digital orders already bring in more than half of total revenue, so every spike in app activity moves the business. Each year the team runs Dodomania, a flagship sales event meant to feel bigger and fresher than ordinary coupons. This year the marketing group knew the promotion had to stand out on phones, not just in pizzerias.

What Was the Challenge?

Traditional tactics like banners, email blasts, and prize draws were losing power. Dodo Pizza set a clear goal: raise engagement fast within the four-week Dodomania window. A review of past campaigns revealed five pain points.

1. Mobile attention is short
   
   Users swipe past static promos in seconds. Dodomania needed something that stops the scroll inside the feed.
2. One-time visits do not build momentum
   
   A big prize can spark a single play, yet it rarely brings people back the next day. The team wanted steady interaction across the full promotion.
3. In-store focus left the app behind
   
   Earlier events targeted pizzeria traffic. Digital orders now drive more than half of revenue, so the mobile channel had to carry equal weight.
4. Habits trump headline offers
   
   Flashy rewards create buzz but do not teach customers to open the app for daily value. Dodo needed an activity users enjoy even when no prize is on the line.
5. Fun first, sales second
   
   The new experience had to feel like play, not work, while still guiding users to Dodomania deals.

The solution had to launch quickly, run smoothly on any phone, and keep people coming back all month.

A Candy Crash for Pizza

In an effort to overcome these challenges, Dodo Pizza together with InAppStory arrived at an innovative solution: gamification. They decided to integrate a story-based game into the Stories feed of their mobile app, hoping that this interactive and entertaining format would motivate more users to participate actively in the Dodomania campaign.

The game, bearing similarities to popular puzzle games like Candy Crush or Homescapes, was developed by the InAppStory team. The concept was straightforward yet interactive: users would rearrange pizza ingredients—depicted as puzzle pieces—in rows, columns, or diagonally to be replaced by new elements.

Adding to the game's appeal, users could accumulate bonus points by completing a pizza before the timer ran out or by collecting a specific number of ingredients to make a whole pizza, depending on the type—be it Margherita, Meat, Pepperoni, or Vegetarian. The game was further heightened by weekly prizes, such as travel tickets, an apartment with a sea view, or a branded Dodo car. These incentives, along with a leaderboard showcasing the top scorers, instilled a sense of healthy competition among the users.

This novel approach to their promotion aimed to make the experience fun and rewarding, intending to foster active participation while promoting the brand and its offerings.

Why It Worked

Food-delivery apps fight three constant hurdles: users check out fast, competition runs similar promos, and margins leave little room for mistakes. A mini-game only helps if it grabs attention, fits short waits, and lifts orders without heavy code. Dodomania met all three needs:

• Familiar mechanics invited instant play
  
  Match-3 puzzles need no guide. Users saw icons, understood, and tapped.
• Short rounds matched delivery timing
  
  Each board clears in under a minute, perfect for the pause between order and courier pick-up.
• Real prizes added weight to every match
  
  Weekly rewards like travel tickets, a branded car turned points into real value and kept scores climbing.
• Stories made discovery effortless
  
  The game opened from the same swipeable feed that shows promos, so no user hunted for a hidden menu.
• Fast build, future reuse
  
  InAppStory’s engine let marketers swap art and go live in days, with no extra strain on dev budgets.
   

Now, a similar Match 3 experience is available to all users through the Game Center. With customizable goals, retry options, and rewards, this new mini-game takes the addictive Match 3 mechanics that made games like Candy Crush so popular and brings them into your app. 🎉

The new Match 3 game offers two exciting modes:

• Instant Win Mode: Users can score points quickly, match elements, and unlock exciting prizes.
• Leaderboard Mode: Players can compete to climb the ranks, showcasing their skills and driving even more engagement.

You can tailor every aspect of the game to align with your brand, from setting specific win conditions to integrating retries tied to certain in-app actions. It's the perfect way to keep users engaged while offering the thrill of friendly competition and instant gratification.

⚡ We love bringing you fresh ways to play, so we’re excited to introduce Sorting — our newest puzzle game in the Game Center. It's great for creating a challenge and supporting longer promotions. Up for it? 

But that’s not all! We’re also slicing up some fun with Slicer — a dynamic game where players must cut the right items and avoid the wrong ones. With instant win opportunities and a leaderboard, it’s a great way to keep engagement high. Plus, it’s easily customizable for any theme, making it ideal for highlighting special deals and offers.

Business Results

The gamified promotional campaign proved to be a tremendous success for Dodo Pizza, leading to a significant surge in user engagement and overall interaction with the mobile app. Over the four weeks of the game's release, the app saw a whopping 315,000 plays from an impressive pool of 162,000 unique users. These figures reflect a significant increase in user engagement, highlighting the success of the gamification approach.

An overwhelming majority of these users, 71.6%, came directly from the Stories feed. This indicates that the game attracted users immediately, drawing them in and encouraging them to participate in the campaign, thereby driving an influx of traffic to the app.