Dodo Pizza, a worldwide pizza delivery franchise, has made significant strides in establishing a strong digital presence. Recognizing the increasing importance of mobile interactions, they prioritized their mobile application as a key platform for customer engagement and sales since the beginning. Annually, they host Dodomania, a grand sales promotion that they aim to make as captivating and exciting as possible.
Dodo had to improve engagement in a limited period since traditional marketing methods did not give the intended results for advertising campaigns, and marketers were looking for a way to find something really new, engaging, giving a significant boost to advertising activities.
Initially, Dodo's promotional campaigns, focused solely on their pizzerias, were only achieving its initial goals. However, upon reviewing the executed campaigns, it became clear that a refresh was needed. They always wanted to engage not just in-store but also digitally, considering a significant portion of their audience and sales (deliveries) are via their mobile application (digital ordering contributes over 50% of Dodo’s revenue).
This presented a significant hurdle, as the success of these promotional campaigns directly impacted sales and brand recognition. Moreover, it became evident that traditional methods of stimulating engagement, like large-scale promotions that Dodo heavily invests in, were not enough to spur frequent and consistent participation from users. Therefore, along with these grand promotions, it is crucial for Dodo to cultivate a greater usage of their mobile application among clients.
While the current promotional strategy employed by Dodo is admirable, there's a crucial element to consider in its customer engagement model. It's equally important to guide users toward regular utilization of their mobile applications. This can create an ingrained habit in consumers, potentially leading to more consistent participation. Instead of solely relying on occasional incentives like prizes, a more constant engagement through the mobile app may provide a sustainable avenue for increased user activity
The main problem lay in creating an engaging, dynamic gamification experience that would incentivize customers to interact with the campaign beyond just playing for the prizes.
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.
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.
Moreover, the campaign's success is underscored by the sheer number of persistent players, with the most engaged users playing more than 90 times. This striking level of repeat engagement, achieved in a compressed time frame, demonstrates not only the game's design effectiveness in retaining the users' interest but also its capacity to deliver rapid results, a crucial aspect of advertising campaigns. It shows that stories can work instantaneously, boosting the campaign here and now, and motivating users to continually return for more.
The rapid implementation and instant impact of mobile Stories prove to be particularly advantageous in the realm of advertising campaigns. These campaigns are ongoing, constantly shifting, and require instantaneous boosting. Mobile Stories can cater to this need by offering immediate results, therefore facilitating in-the-moment marketing strategies.
Regarding the time spent on the app, the gamified promotional campaign had also a significant impact. Each player, on average, spent 250 seconds in the game. This increase in the duration of app usage sessions signifies a deeper level of engagement and interest among the users, ultimately leading to a higher likelihood of conversion.
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