Commentary

Why Domino's 'offensive game' may be big winner Super Bowl Sunday

How does a pizza brand really use Super Bowl Sunday pizza orders to break into a cache of new customers? Domino's offensive game this Sunday appears to be a great way to start.

February 1, 2019 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

Sunday's the big day in the U.S. — unless, you don't give a squat about football, then it's just Sunday — the Super Bowl. If you're a pizza brand, you are among those who may care the most about this Feb. 3, since it means you will be both hauling in, and rolling out the "dough," in mass quantities.

Just about every major chain is planning some kind of discount to draw those Super Bowl pizza purchase dollars their way. Official NFL pizza sponsor, Pizza Hut, said it will reward the first baby born after kickoff — or his or her parents — a year's free pizza and next year's Super Bowl tickets, if they tweet the birth first with a baby pix, special tags and hashtags, according to a news release.

Many other smaller brands are offering deals like that at Rapid Fired Pizza, which is giving half off online orders or free Doordash delivery Sunday.

But I looked at these deals through the lens of a Super Bowl pizza customer, with an eye toward what would really catch my business and here's what I concluded:

Since most every brand is offering something, I would likely just do what I always do and go with the brand I most prefer for pizza on any other day of the year.
Assuming most people have similar single-brand inclinations, I realized all brands now really have to "pay to play" on Super Bowl Sunday, so to speak, by at least offering some kind off attractive discount.
Would only try a new brand if they both let me enjoy my favorite pizza on the big day, but still made it worthwhile to try theirs sometime in the future.

That's right. On Super Bowl Sunday, I don't want anything — including untried pizza — to potentially mess up my overall experience of fun and excitement. But I might embark on riskier consumer behavior later, if it was worth my while. In other words, any pizza brand that could possibly draw me in as a new customer would have to play an offensive game.

Domino's campaign this year does just that because it rewards customers and potential customers for just eating pizza — even if they buy it from a competitor. It's counter-intuitive in the short view, but real genius in the long view.

The brand — the biggest pizza chain in the world — also manages to work a really cool use of AI into the roots off the campaign, since it is using artificial intelligence to identify the pictures of pizza that customers send in that form the base of the campaign. Here's how it works, according to Domino's:

Customers download the Domino's mobile app to enroll in its Piece of the Pie Rewards loyalty program.
Customers scan pictures of pizza —any pizza, including those of competitors or those made at home — which earns them 10 points per scan.
After scans of six pizzas or 60 points later, that customer gets a free Domino's pie.

So, in essence, instead of giving discounts to attract customers on Super Bowl Sunday itself, Domino's is using the over-the-top pizza holiday of Super Bowl Sunday itself to draw in new customers from that point on.

And one of the coolest thing is how the latest tech makes the whole thing go 'round, since the AI is what recognizes the pizza pictures to enable the rewards give all those new mobile app users "entry" into what in many cases will be a customer's initial taste of Domino's.

Domino's told MediaPost.com it will give away 100 million points, or the equivalent of nearly 1.7 million pizzas over 12 weeks through the campaign, with redemption of only one prize pizza per customer. In my book that's not only clever use of tech, mobile ordering and marketing, but as good an offensive game as any we will see on the field Sunday.

About S.A. Whitehead

Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.