A hometown baseball promo that ends up costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in free pies may sound like a swing and a miss, but for Cincinnati chain LaRosa's Pizza, it's a bases-loaded home run. Whenever the Reds strike out more than 11 batters in a game, every ticket-holder gets a free eight-inch pizza. So what happened when the pitching staff got red-hot?
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PMQ Newsletter Goes Mobile
With a new name and a new look, your weekly newsletter from PMQ keeps getting better and better. Our new mobile-friendly format boasts a sleek, colorful, single-column design that renders easily on both computer browsers and smartphones. We've also modified and improved our content to suit your on-the-go lifestyle, with shorter content for quick skimming, links to PMQ's website for more detailed info, larger images and more "news you can use," including tips for marketing and promoting your pizzeria. It's just one more way that PMQ works to deliver more of the content you want in every conceivable format. And don't forget to download the PMQ app at iTunes or Amazon!

This Week in Pizza

Today on This Week In Pizza: An Xbox app for pizza; pizzas for the press; and pizza pitch goes wild.
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A Call to Action
Special offers should always come with a call-to-action and a short expiration date. "The two primary motivations to buy are fear and greed," says Ed Zimmerman, founder of The Food Connector. "If you can get patrons to fear that they will miss a great deal and the offer is strong enough to create greed, you win on both and create the psychology for a sale." (Source: The Pizza Insider)
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Xbox app could be game changer
for Pizza Hut

A new app from Pizza Hut targets a lucrative demographic – young men ages 18-24 – by letting them order pizza while playing Xbox games. A gamer can sync his Xbox account with his PizzaHut.com account, build his own custom pie and order via voice command or simply with a wave of his hand, all without ever budging from the couch.
Read more at PMQ.com.

Pizza and Pumps
Mary's Pizza Shack in Anderson, California hosted Pizza and Pumps, a fundraiser for the Shasta Women's Refuge and the Shasta Family Justice Center. The event, held on Sunday, April 28, featured a family-friendly one-mile walk to promote sexual assault awareness, plus a pizza-making contest for local celebrities, a pizza-eating competition and activities for kids, including a bounce house, face-painting and a petting zoo. All proceeds will go to help local victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.
Read more at PMQ.com.