DodoPizza network currently has 611 pizzerias in 13 countries, including Russia, the UK, China, and even Nigeria. Total network sales in 2019 — $314 million. The company is one of the fastest-growing brands in the fast-food segment in the world (in particular, No.1 Fastest-GrowingChaininEuropeandtheMiddleEast, 2018, as well as 3rdGrowthChainstoKnow, 2018 Globally).
DodoPizza has been operating in China since June 2016. The first pizzeria opened in Hangzhou (population — 9.5 million). For the next four years, the company has come a long way, gained experience and knowledge, created a product, and a unique pizzeria format adapted to the characteristics of the Chinese market.
Before the start of our work, the brand had an uninteresting, dim design of pizza boxes, irrelevant for an Asian audience. Asian styled graphics is very expressive, bright, it has a lot of characters, it is completely different from the European style. We wanted the visual style to attract attention with thoughtful details, interesting moves, and unusual combinations. It was necessary to create a new corporate visual style for the DodoPizza brand in China, which would combine all brand contact points and support the concept of the “amazing pizza world”.
To the Dodo team, we proposed a complex approach, which guaranteed maximum immersion of the participants. It included a full-fledged study of the fast-food market in Hangzhou and Shanghai, ethnological tours, search for insights, and a strategic workshop. We proposed to assemble an integrated team that included strategists, designers, cultural anthropologists specializing in food, Sinologists, and specialists in Eastern culture.
We proposed several concepts and, as a result, chose one of them, the most promising one — the concept of “Portal between fantastic worlds”. According to it, the packaging was a parcel from one of the parallel universes, and the pizzeria was the post office where these parcels come. A box of pizza every time is a package from a fantasy world.
The drawn worlds are consistent with the brand's product benefits. Each illustration is a world of sensations that opens with every slice of pizza. Only emotions and feelings matter. This idea is perfectly expressed by the slogan — ”Pizza & adventure”. Each food benefit is embodied in a certain state: airy dough inspires us, lifts above the bustle, and gives lightness. And now we already hovering in the clouds, looking into the windows of charter flights flying by. All the ingredients are so fresh that they take us into the jungle, and the cheese stretches like a long bungee that carries us above the waterfall and the sound of a river passing by.
There are two DodoPizza pizzerias currently opened in Hangzhou — the flagship and mini-format. The company sees the possibility of building a network of 2000-2500 pizzerias in China in the future 10 years.
Linii project team: Michail Gubergrits, Dmitry Burenko, Taisiya Denisova, Valera Sadovsky, Katia Kolotilova, Yulya Plotnik, Ilya Savonkin, Anna Ho, Andrew Tupikin
Secret Sause project team: Elena Karachkova, Yana Amosova
Dodo Pizza project team: Fedor Ovchinnikov, Anna Kalmykova, Myke Semyonov, Oleg Koulik, Spartak Arutyunyan
Illustrations: Hao Hao / China
