You don’t have to eat Domino’s pizza to earn points in the chain’s rewards program—at least not for the next 12 weeks.
As explained in a national TV commercial featuring CEO Ritch Allison, the company is offering Piece of the Pie rewards points for eating pizza from any restaurant or frozen-food company. To get 10 points toward a free Domino’s pizza, customers simply download the company’s app, join the rewards program, and scan their pizza, whether it’s a Little Caesars carryout pie, a slice from a hometown independent shop or even a Totino’s pizza.
“We know consumers are incredibly promiscuous,” Kate Trumbull, Domino’s vice president of advertising, told Ad Age. “They shop around, they eat all kinds of different pizza, and that’s OK, right? They love pizza, we love pizza—we love all different kinds of pizza.”
But the promo also pulls pizza fans into the Domino’s rewards program. “It gives people an opportunity to engage with our brand with no risk, and our goal is to keep them and earn their loyalty,” Trumbull said.
Proving that Domino’s is as much a tech firm as a pizza chain, the company had an internal analytics and digital team develop an artificial intelligence system that recognizes photos of pizza, Ad Age reports. It tested thousands of photos and based recognition on what Trumbull calls “an open-faced expression of sauce, cheese and crust.”
The system also recognizes pizza-shaped toys, and fans can get points for those as well.
Domino’s even went so far as to shoot the TV commercial with Allison in a non-Domino’s store. Allison can be seen sitting in the dining room of Antico Pizza in Atlanta, with an Antico pie in front of him. “It brought a lot of credibility that he was telling the story,” Trumbull told Ad Age.