Pizza Loyalty First Impression Study

Loyalty apps have a structural problem: the reward is always in the future. Someone downloads the app, and the first thing they see is a promise about a pizza they haven't earned yet. Retention is decided in those first few seconds, before any points exist.

This study focuses entirely on that moment — the splash and the welcome screen — and asks what a loyalty app can give a first-time user when it has nothing tangible to offer yet.

The answer here is character. An animated mascot carries the splash, turning a loading state into the first interaction rather than a wait. The welcome screen then shows the mechanic instead of describing it: the mascot handing over a QR code at the door, the exact gesture the user will repeat on every order. Someone who sees the action understands the program without reading the explanation underneath.

The copy commits to the same tone. Earn Points at Every Slice is written for a product about pizza, not for a product about points. And the split between a filled primary button and a quiet secondary one makes the new-user path obvious while keeping the returning user one tap away.

The second aim of this study was craft: building and animating a vector mascot with AI-assisted tooling, and learning how far that workflow can carry a brand character from concept to motion.