Meet the winners of KazandıRio Hackathon!

January 13, 2022

We had a fantastic experience with KazandıRio Hackathon last weekend on Discord. At Hackquarters, we love hackathons because the synergy of the youth inspires us. Corporates are also highly interested in hackathons since they can approach pain points and needs from different & fresh angles; they also take the opportunity to connect with young talents. That’s why we see hackathons as a significant part of the innovation ecosystem.

KazandıRio, created by PepsiCo with adesso's support, is an app that includes the promotional campaigns of PepsiCo brands. With KazandıRio, PepsiCo allows customers to earn digital (game codes, free GB, coupons, etc.) and physical advantages (valid money in contracted grocery stores, PepsiCo products) thanks to the codes placed on the product packages. The idea behind the 48-hour coding challenge was to encourage students and coders to solve current workflow-related problems and generate new ideas for the app. 

In KazandıRio Hackathon, we saw how unique ideas could arise from a hackathon. Throughout the experience, the key focuses were activation through gamification, retention through daily engagement, and acquisition through new content. The awards were ₺35.000 for the 1st Team, ₺25.000 for the 2nd, and ₺15.000 for the 3rd.

KazandiRio Hackathon started on Friday, the 7th of January, with the opening session held by the program partners: KazandıRio,adesso, and Hackquarters. The opening meeting began with a welcoming speech of Hackquarters Founder and CEO Kaan Akın, and he told the participants about Digital Services, Expectations from Hackathon, and Hackathon Rules. “Through the ideas you'll develop, we not only wish to increase awareness & attract our churned and passive users back to KazandıRio but also aim to keep our active users engaged by turning them into frequent users who open the app at least once a week. To accomplish these targets, you may work on one of the possible ideas we have listed below for you. Alternatively, please feel encouraged to come up with unique ideas and develop entirely new and applicable solutions as you wish.”

After Kaan Akın, our mentors introduced themselves and talked about Hackathon Categories and APIs along with Usage Orientation. We were honored to have an extensive group of mentors covering all skills ranging from software development to brand strategy and business development. The Hackathon continued with participants forming their teams on Discord. The support from our mentors to the participants was invaluable. Both teams’ and mentors' feedback showed that they were inspired by each other. Later on, Kaan Akın conducted a training session t about “Business Models, Customers, and MVP: Prototyping 2022.”

On Saturday, our mentor Murat Ünver held a “Pitching Skills and Presentation Training” session. Then, teams continued to work on their ideas until they submitted their pitches at 11 AM, Sunday. At 2 PM, selected teams pitched their ideas, and juries selected the winners.

KazandıRio Hackathon infographic
KazandıRio Hackathon Infographic


Winning Teams

1st Place: Metario

Yağmur İnan

Mert Ünver

Gizem Akyol

2nd Place: Hypersoft

İrfan Çetin

Eray Er

Güney Işık

Mert Kıvrak

3rd Place: Beynex

Emre Şahiner

Oğulcan Bagatır

Tolga Atam

Special Jury Prize: Scinovation

İlkim Derin

Gürel Yıldız

Emin İşler

Ebru Özhan

A huge congrats and many thanks to all the partners, mentors, and teams who made this Hackathon great. We hope to see you all again soon!

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