The solution
Pizza Hut Malaysia's Cheesy Poppers promotion collided with the 2022 FIFA World Cup, a period packed with food and beverage advertising. The brief was to close the year with a 10% year-on-year sales increase while spending less than a normal share-of-voice fight would require.
Dentsu Malaysia and Carat noticed that football fans were also recreating matches in mobile games during half-time and live conversations. Cheese Codes inserted real-time pizza offers into that parallel game layer.
The codes were jokes as well as coupons: Mbapperoni, Crispiano, Mezzirella, Neymarinara and Modrichili tied players to toppings. When live goals happened, codes appeared on dynamic pitch boards and were amplified on Twitter.
What it achieved
Fans replay goals in mobile games
Why it worked
The campaign avoided the most expensive World Cup media inventory and used a live second-screen habit.
Player-name puns made the promo easy to remember and share.
In-game A-boards were native to football, so the offer felt like part of the match world.
A tap moved fans from attention to delivery at the moment appetite was highest.
What can be applied
When the main media moment is overcrowded, find the adjacent habit people switch to during breaks and make that the point of purchase.
Aftermath
Roastbrief reported a 14% increase in Cheesy Poppers Pizza orders in 25 days, 8.4 million media impressions, 1.1 million unique viewers and engagement with over a million gamers. Kancil awarded Cheese Codes silver for small-scale brand experience and activation.
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