H3 | Loyalty app
Graphic design + Web design + UI/UX
Creative Direction (2011 - 2017): Albano Homem de Melo + André Moura Guedes
Client (2018 - 2019): H3
A bit of backstory. In 2011 the Portuguese Government raised the country’s standard VAT tax by 10%. H3, a Portuguese fast food burger chain, instead of raising its product prices to accommodate the change, created a promotion, through stamped coupons, that offered a free meal for every 9 meals a customer bought.
The promotion was named Tuga Resists, Tuga being nickname for “Portuguese”, and was accompanied by a manifest that served as an institutional letter.
Even though sales increased, there were some logistical issues and also high production costs associated with the promotion. There were also a few cases of stamp forgery so, every now and then, both stamps and coupons had to keep changing. Eventually this became so hard to manage that a switch to digital was considered.
Enter H3's loyalty app.
It's 2014 and there were no relevant apps being used in Portugal’s fast food industry. So when H3 developed its loyalty app, adapting the coupons into a digital platform, it became the first of many (including McDonald's) to do so.
Through its app, H3 was able to collect data that would allow an in depth anonymous analysis of who their customers were and what were their eating habits, and also adapting the menu in order to target specific groups, based on location and gender, and improve sales.
Besides the digital stamps the app had other rewards, challenges, and achievements that boosted engagement and gamified consumption. The app also provided customers with news and updates regarding the brand.
The user base grew in the first year to about 300,000 and, to this day, keeps growing. Around 70% of the customers use the app when purchasing their meal.
In 2017, by popular request, a website mirroring the app was developed. A few extra features were added such as user history and experience rating.
Since a cleaner and minimal layout was designed for the website it made sense the app adopted the same lines so, in 2018, H3 began developing a new app.
Besides history and ratings, a few extra features, such as in-app purchases (allowing customers to skip the line and buy their meal directly through the app), new challenges, the ability to redeem vouchers, consumption statistics, and a notification system, were introduced so that the app would feel more like a newer version than just a cosmetic update.
