Technology

How Papa Gino's leverages technology to compete on national level

Papa Gino's is beefing up its technological advances with a new website, an updated app and a revamped loyalty program.

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September 12, 2022 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group

Technological advances have moved mountains in the restaurant industry. Such is the case of New England-based Papa Gino's, which leverages technology to increase customer frequency. For a legacy brand that has been in business for decades, it's crucial to compete on a national level.

In 1961, Michael Valerio and his wife, Helen, started a pizza company called Piece O' Pizza in East Boston and they renamed the company Papa Gino's in 1968. Valerio remained active in his company, visiting franchised stores and treating employees like family.

Deena McKinley
chief experience officer at Papa Gino's

Today, the company has 81 stores, all of which are now corporate owned. Papa Gino's is now owned by New England Authentic Eats LLC, also parent company to the D'Angelo Grilled Sandwiches brand as well. New England Authentic Eats LLC owns all 81 company locations as well as Papa Gino's sister brand, D'Angelo Grilled Sandwiches.

"We are really charging ahead with innovation because that's really important. You have this awesome foundation of this great family-owned business and this family feel, but throughout the years you have a lot of changes and growing pains going from a lot of things that are legacy into the need for evolution and modernization," Deena McKinley, chief experience officer of parent company New England Authentic Eats LLC, said in a phone interview. "Now we're at this wonderful point of growth where we're looking ahead."

Technological advances

Papa Gino's is constantly employing cutting-edge digital marketing tactics and technological innovations to rival national competition. In 2018, the brand started a text program. "It was pretty early adoption of really understanding the power of the database and the power of utilizing a very large database in order to talk to our guests and drive frequency based on their habits and based on what they were already doing," McKinley said.

The brand has a large database of legacy users but didn't have a consistent way of talking to guests. It started segmenting the database based on consumers' usage. What Papa Gino's found were different engagements and talking to people in a more relevant way, driving frequency and increasing visits, McKinley added.

"That really helped to drive our sales and it set us up for really tremendous success during COVID," McKinley said. "Talking to our guests was critical for our success. Having that ability to text them and email them and really keep ourselves top of mind while people were home wanting food delivery or carryout that they felt safe with was very important."

The company then turned its attention to its website, updating its app and revamping its loyalty program. Papa Gino's is currently working on those, and a new website will be launched later this year. With that launch comes a new and improved app as well as an updated version of the loyalty program in the first half of 2023 that will create tiers for users.

The brand hired a new vice president of technology and automation and blended those areas of operation with the marketing, catering and guest experience team to create an experience team whose mission it is to develop the website, updated app and loyalty program. The first thing the team looked at was how easily people could find Papa Gino's.

The company then looked at digital strategies and other marketing tactics to determine how it can remain top of mind. It wants its digital components to be easy to find and use, with a simplified ordering process, easy-to-understand rewards program and job applications. "Once they find us, that has to be a brainless experience for them," McKinley added.

While the pizza industry tends to be old school, it's ripe for use, McKinley said. People of all ages love rewards, and the best way to be rewarded for loyalty and to encourage frequency within a segment like pizza is to be rewarded with technology, which Gen Z up to Gen X appreciates.

"Exposing our new technology on platforms like TikTok and Snapchat, which we have been doing and plan to do more of, will definitely open us up in a way to generations that are much more comfortable in daily use of technology — and lots of use of technology for ordering, delivering and interacting," McKinley said.

Papa Gino's wants to create experiences with pizza through social sharing and gamification, and technology is key to getting that done. Experiences like secret menus via the app are the kind of technology Papa Gino's is looking to implement.

During the pandemic, the brand was already well situated with its carryout and delivery models. In terms of technology, Papa Gino's leveraged its digital optimization of search-engine marketing. "We really went in and optimized all of our content," McKinley said. "We made sure that we were 'top of find.' Where we used to be top of mind, we had to be 'top of find' as people were searching 'pizza near me,' 'best pizza' or 'pizza in whatever town they're in.' We had to be at the top of that search list."

The company responded to Google reviews and uploaded photos of its food and made sure it had consistent information across all its locations, and doing everything that Papa Gino's could from a digital perspective across all content. Also important was making sure keywords were linked in the right places and were representative of the brand.

"I think all of that effort really helped us stay ahead in those local pack searches from an SEO perspective," McKinley said, adding that they brought in several new guests through a discovery search online.

Papa Gino's is currently working on co-branded locations with D'Angelo's, planning a total of six this year. One additional Papa Gino's should open by the end of the year as well.

About Mandy Wolf Detwiler

Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the site editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has more than 20 years’ experience covering food, people and places.

An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings more than 20 years’ experience to Networld Media Group. She has spent nearly two decades covering the pizza industry, from independent pizzerias to multi-unit chains and every size business in between. Mandy has been featured on the Food Network and has won numerous awards for her coverage of the restaurant industry. She has an insatiable appetite for learning, and can tell you where to find the best slices in the country after spending 15 years traveling and eating pizza for a living.

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