Overview
When PepsiCo approached us, their loyalty program had a problem: users were sitting on huge piles of points with no good way to spend them. First, I designed a points-based tournament campaign, experimenting with different mechanics for point burning. After testing and iteration, we found the right formula: Try-based Tournaments where players exchanged points for individual tries. Building on this success, I helped create the PepsiCo Nurture Pet, a long-term engagement experience where users raised a virtual pet tied to PepsiCo's brand. Together, these two products turned loyalty from a liability headache into something fun, emotional, and habit-forming.
Background
The team at PepsiCo was looking for two things: a way to clear excess loyalty points that had become a financial burden, and a way to make loyalty engaging, not just a transactional coupon system.
At first, we launched with a fixed entry fee tournament model: players paid a set number of points for access to the full tournament duration. However, results showed low participation — users hesitated to commit points upfront.
So, we pivoted. We introduced a Try-based Tournament model, where users exchanged a smaller number of points for each attempt. This reduced the barrier to entry, felt fairer to casual players, and encouraged repeat engagement. The change worked wonders — participation jumped, and point burning became both efficient and exciting.
Key Insight
"From there, we extended the success into a second phase: the Joy Pet Nurture system, where users could engage emotionally with the brand over the long term."