Cheese Codes
Open the game- Brand
- Pizza Hut
- Year
- 2023
- Objective
- Sales
- Industry
- Food & drink
- Mechanic
- Puzzle
- Agency
- Dentsu Creative
Objective
Pizza Hut Malaysia sought to drive sales of Cheesy Poppers during the 2022 FIFA World Cup by reaching mobile gaming audiences—a segment largely untapped by traditional media advertising. While the World Cup generated massive advertising clutter from competing QSR brands, the brand identified an opportunity: 1.2 million active players in mobile football games represented a high-engagement, lower-competition audience during the tournament.
Solution
Cheese Codes combined player names with pizza topping words to create branded promotional codes (e.g., MBAPPEPPERONI, CRISPIANO, NEYMARINARA). Codes were triggered in real-time within FIFA Mobile, Football Manager, and Top Eleven whenever their namesake player scored during live World Cup broadcasts. Gamers could redeem codes to order Cheesy Poppers directly from gaming platforms without leaving the app. The campaign distributed codes via in-game mechanics and amplified them through Twitter, Twitch partnerships, and gaming communities.
Results
Within 25 days, Cheesy Poppers sales surged 14%, and the product accounted for 29% of Pizza Hut Malaysia's Q4 revenue. The campaign reached 8.4 million media impressions, 1.1 million unique viewers, and engaged over 1 million gamers.
