Sundae Forecast case study: how a loyalty calendar drove 10x visits
Sundae Ice Cream turned a simple monthly loyalty calendar into a reason for guests to keep coming back to its app. See how Sundae Forecast drove a 10x spike in app visits on National Ice Cream Day and why recurring loyalty mechanics can outperform another discount.
Most restaurant brands treat their restaurant loyalty app like a coupon book: a place to push a promo and hope someone notices. Sundae Ice Cream did something different. It turned its loyalty calendar into a reason to open the app every month, styled after a weather forecast, and saw app visits jump 10x on one of its busiest days of the year.
Here is how a simple, recurring idea helped Sundae strengthen restaurant app engagement without relying on another discount push and what it takes to build a restaurant loyalty program guests actually look forward to.
The problem: guests only open the restaurant loyalty app for a deal
Ice cream is a seasonal, feel-good purchase. But many loyalty programs treat every visit the same way: the same rewards page, the same generic push notification, the same “20% off today” banner. Guests get used to that pattern fast, and many restaurant loyalty apps only see a real spike in traffic around a big promotion, then go quiet again until the next one.
Sundae Ice Cream and LoyaltyPlant wanted to break that pattern. Instead of pushing bigger discounts each time, the goal was to create a restaurant loyalty strategy that gave guests a reason to check the app on a schedule, deal or no deal.
The challenge was not simply to offer more rewards. It was to create consistent customer engagement and make opening the app part of the guest experience.
The mechanic: how Sundae Forecast works
The result was Sundae Forecast, a recurring in-app experience styled after a monthly weather forecast. It uses Colorado’s famously unpredictable weather as the theme, turning a familiar local idea into a simple form of loyalty gamification.
The mechanic has four simple parts:
- A fresh theme every month: new seasonal visuals and a new “forecast” keep the loyalty calendar feeling new, instead of like a screen guests have already stopped noticing.
- Forecast days with real rewards: some days on the calendar unlock bonus points, free toppings, or a free scoop. Not every day, which is exactly why guests keep checking back. This makes the restaurant rewards program feel more dynamic without requiring a discount every time a guest opens the app.
- Two reminders, not one: guests get a nudge before a forecast day arrives, then a second one on the day itself. That way, even guests who do not open the app often still find out.
- Open to everyone: any loyalty member can join in, whether they signed up yesterday or years ago. That matters for a seasonal brand where members join at very different times and helps make the mechanic part of the broader customer loyalty experience rather than a campaign for a small segment of users.
None of these four parts is complicated on its own. What makes Sundae Forecast work is that they repeat together, month after month, in the same simple order: new theme, anticipation, reminder, reward.
Rather than adding complexity for the sake of it, the gamified loyalty program gives guests an easy pattern to recognize and a reason to return.
The result: 10x more app visits on National Ice Cream Day
On National Ice Cream Day, one of the brand’s biggest days of the year, app visits went up 10x compared to a normal day.
That result matters for two reasons.
- First, National Ice Cream Day already gets people thinking about ice cream on its own, so a brand does not need a loyalty mechanic to spark interest that day. The 10x jump shows how Sundae Forecast helped turn that existing interest into significantly higher restaurant app engagement.
- Second, because the mechanic runs every month, the team did not need to build a special campaign just for that day. It was already running, and the loyalty calendar simply had a bigger reward waiting on the day guests were already excited to buy.
For the restaurant loyalty program, that means engagement is not dependent entirely on isolated promotional campaigns. The recurring mechanic gives the brand a framework it can continue using throughout the year.
“Gamified loyalty calendar” sounds clever, so it is easy to assume that is why it worked. It is not. Guests came back because the calendar was predictable, not because it was fancy.
Three simple things make it predictable:
- A new theme every month gives guests a habit: check the app, see what is new.
- Rewards on only some days, not every day, give guests a reason to keep checking.
- Two reminders, not one, mean guests do not have to remember on their own. The app reminds them.
- This is what makes loyalty gamification useful beyond simply adding games to an app. The goal is to create repeatable behaviors that strengthen customer engagement over time.
How to build a gamified loyalty calendar for your restaurant
Sundae Forecast is built around ice cream and weather, but the idea behind it works for almost any restaurant. Three questions matter more than how the calendar looks:
- Do you have a recurring seasonal or cultural moment to build around? Sundae Forecast works because ice cream naturally comes with seasons. If your brand does not have an obvious seasonal hook, you can build a similar mechanic around a weekly schedule instead, like a “flavor of the week” or a reward on the same day every week.
- Can some days be worth more than others? The mechanic works because it is not the same every day. If every day gives the same reward, guests have no reason to check back.
- Can you send two reminders, not just one? A single reminder on the day of an event only reaches guests who already had the brand in mind. The reminder a day or two before is what reaches everyone else.
Here is what that could look like for different types of restaurants:
- A pizza chain could run a “Pizza Forecast,” featuring a different topping or crust each week, with a bonus reward on a set day tied to weekend or game-day cravings instead of weather.
- A coffee or bakery brand could build a “Flavor Calendar” around seasonal drinks or pastries, with a surprise free add-on, like an extra shot or a pastry pairing, unlocked on a few days each month.
- A burger or chicken chain could run a weekly “Combo Countdown,” where one specific combo earns bonus points on a set day, with a reminder sent the night before, right around payday or the weekend rush.
- A multi-location casual dining brand could tie the calendar to a rotating local menu item, so each market gets its own version of the theme while keeping the same reward structure and reminder timing everywhere.
In every version, the shape stays the same: a schedule guests can count on, a reason to check back that is not just a discount, and a second reminder that does the remembering for the guest.
The takeaway
The most useful part of this case study is not the ice cream theme. It is that the brand did not need a bigger discount to get a bigger spike. It needed a better reason for guests to check the app before the spike ever happened. That is a mechanic almost any restaurant brand can build, no matter its size or category, once the basic loop, theme, anticipation, reminder, reward, is in place.
See how a recurring loyalty mechanic like Sundae Forecast would work for your menu. Book a demo with LoyaltyPlant.
