MochiQuest

In 2021, The KraftHeinz Company created the CRM team to test and launch 3 new digital products. As the company was eager to understand better their consumers, the goal wasn't on revenue, but on data collection and user insights.

MochiQuest was one of the 3 projects, and is an idea generator for parents who struggle with their kid’s nutrition.
It's a mission-based digital game for kids.
The game supports parents by being an educational tool (sending kids on a mindful eating journey through small challenges that are often completed IRL over the course of several days or a week). 

Rewards for completing quests focus on activities and spending quality time with family, instead of digital rewards, to avoid tying kids to screens for too long.
Instead of collecting the typical digital rewards such as badges/stickers, kids can collect "happy memories" by uploading pictures of the rewards they unlocked through the game, whether it's a sleepover with friends, or a family day at the zoo.

This is a space that Kraft-Heinz can use to understand better kids' taste, preferences and dislikes through quick quizzes and missions.

KHC science team and recipe database would participate in creating the content of some mission and use the data for actionable development.‍

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Dopamine makes you motivated (short-term happiness)

MochiQuest is applying a bit of the classic digital game mechanisms of challenge leading to reward. 

With a bit of Dopamine boost, we ensure interest and engagement.

Dopamine is related to the reward system and reinforces pleasurable experiences (note that it is thought to play a role in addiction and compulsive gambling). 

However, MochiQuest doesn’t keep this challenge/reward experience in the digital world, but brings it into the real-life. 

Serotonin helps you feel good (long-term happiness)

The end objective of MochiQuest is a stable increase of interest, curiosity, and overall family healthy eating behavior, by generating conversations and warm family moments. 

High levels of dopamine block the release and transport of serotonin. So, getting more and more addicted means that one needs more dopamine every time. This prevents your experience of contentment or happiness. In the serotonin state of mind, you do not need more; you are at rest with yourself. 

Aiming for long-term happiness is the main reason why MochiQuest doesn’t copy the typical digital game features, and translate the player’s experience in a small space, just between entertainment and education.

Kids get curious/interested through play and rewards (Dopamine effect)→ trigger family discussions → parents are free to investigate, inform themselves, educate their kid with their own words, get more curious and interested too, etc.  (Serotonin effect)

MochiQuest is not giving lessons, or preaching anything else apart from “be curious, keep an open mind, do your own research, take control of what you eat (whatever it may be)”.