By Arnav Garg
Domino’s Pizza has spent decades perfecting their under 30 minutes delivery system, essentially by optimising the pizza-making process to peak efficiency. They are the ones who believe fast food must be fast. But what happened when they realised bad roads were obstructing them from keeping their promise of quick high-quality pizza delivery?
After closely analyzing customer feedback, Domino’s observed a vast disparity in the fluency of the pizza delivery process. On one end, Domino’s employees executed a symphony of efficiency to bake the perfect pizza. On the other end though, customers were anxious about their pizza reaching home safely due to bad roads. Domino’s couldn’t stomach such torture to their meticulously crafted pizzas. They sought to change the state of affairs in a way which would engage mass media and boost customer perception of their brand.
The reputed marketing team at Domino’s proposed “Paving for Pizza” campaign. They didn’t want to fill small, medium and large pizzas with cheese and toppings anymore. They wanted to fill up potholes of all sizes around the United States which hindered with the smooth transfer of pizzas from the kitchen to dinner tables. Domino’s extravagant campaign was able to stir such fervour that everyone demanded a slice of their new campaign. This resulted in over a billion impressions across social media networks. In Domino’s own words — “People are very passionate about potholes.”
Domino’s went on to install a ‘Pothole Impact Meter’ on their campaign website which shows actual footage of the impact ‘bad roads have on good pizza’ from inside the box. Netizens can choose road conditions from mild, moderate, critical and catastrophic and view the damage that particular road condition had on an ideal box of pizza. Domino’s gives it a scientific twist by displaying stats such as a ‘pothole impact meter’ graph and a ‘pizza damage report’ animation.
The company initially issued a press release declaring the launch of a pilot project in four cities. Phase one immediately got immense coverage on national television and ignited buzz to fuel the campaign forward. Domino’s allocated a grant of $5,000 for each city. The city council then got to decide how to utilise the grant in their own way. They usually redirected these funds to the Public Works Department or private contractors. Many city councils maintained constant communication and reported back stats such as several potholes filled, area of roads repaved and time of completion.
Once the city council processed legalities to accept the grant, Domino’s sent them the cheque and an ‘Asset Kit’. The Asset Kit’s sole purpose was to inject a little fun into the campaign and the process. It includes job site signs, magnetic truck signs with the Domino’s logo, Paving for Pizza business cards and stickers and even stencils for use once the job is done. Domino’s realised that to make the campaign more appealing, it had to be photogenic. Construction workers were to capture the maintenance drive in the form of photos and videos. Moreover, local Domino’s franchises in nominated cities frequently treated construction workers with free pizzas and gift cards.
Eventually, netizens were invited to nominate their city through the campaign microsite. Cities with the highest nominations in each state were eligible for the grant. In conclusion, Domino’s has paid to pave roads in one city in each state while generating massive social media engagement and erecting pristine brand perception in the process.
The article is written for 180 Degrees Consulting, Delhi Technological University, under the campaign #MarketingForACause. To read more content shared by our other consultants, please check out our LinkedIn page- https://www.linkedin.com/company/180dc-dtu
