Cannes Lions

PIZZA

CRISPIN PORTER + BOGUSKY, Boulder / DOMINO'S PIZZA / 2010

Awards:

1 Shortlisted Cannes Lions
Film
1 of 0 items

Overview

Entries

Credits

OVERVIEW

Description

In 2009, Domino’s faced a harsh truth: Most people really didn’t like their pizza. So, after 50 years, they started over and completely remade their recipe. But after dishing out a mediocre product for so long, how could they convince anyone that this new pizza was truly 'new and improved.' The solution? The 'Pizza Turnaround' campaign. Unflinchingly forthright TV and online docu-style videos told the true story of how their most brutal consumer critiques ('crust tastes like cardboard', 'totally void of flavor' for starters) became motivation for them to improve their pie. And then, how they converted some of their critics by bringing the new pizza to their doorsteps. By actually embracing the criticism and putting their harshest critiques on air, Domino’s in one fell swoop revamped their image, regained their credibility, and got America pulling for them again. And most importantly, sold a heckuva lot of pizza.

Execution

Domino’s 'Pizza Turnaround' campaign first broke on the Domino’s homepage and on the campaign microsite, PizzaTurnaround.com, which featured a four-minute documentary titled “The Pizza Turnaround” and an unfiltered live feed of tweets both favorable and unfavorable about the new pizza. The documentary chronicled how Domino’s employees used their harshest critics’ barbs as motivation to create a totally new and improved pizza. A week later, 60 and 30-second TV spots telling the turnaround story hit the airwaves, tagged with PizzaTurnaround.com. The same day, a YouTube homepage take over featured a teaser trailer for 'The Pizza Turnaround' documentary, and drove traffic to the microsite. Three weeks later, the 'at-the-door' phase began with a new 30 second TV spot and long form video on PizzaTurnaround.com featuring two Domino’s Chefs winning over some of these harsh critics by actually taking the new pizza to their doorsteps and serving it to them.

Outcome

Domino’s new pizza is shaping up to be one of the most successful new product launches ever. The stock price rose 44% in the month following the campaign launch. 4th quarter profits were double last year’s numbers, and another big quarter is expected. PizzaTurnaround.com has had over a million visits, and 'The Pizza Turnaround' documentary has 610,000 views and counting. The campaign has created a major buzz in the press, having been featured on CNN, MSNBC, The Colbert Report, Huffington Post, Mad Money with Jim Cramer, ABC World News, Fox News, Oprah Radio, The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, Time Magazine, NY Times and dozens of others news and press outlets. Even the phrase 'Pulling a Domino’s,' referring to Domino’s candor in this campaign, has made its way into the pop lexicon, being used to describe everything from a potential solution for the GOP to the Sundance Film Festival reboot.

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