click-thru purchasing, SMS, and Facebook fansites in the pizza wars:
The control revolution and interactive TV bring us to the e-pizza frontier. Fall 2008 TiVo partners with Domino’s to provide remote-controlled pizza ordering. Without interrupting the program being watched, hungry subscribers place their order via remote directly on-screen. Next, watch the progress of the pop-up pizza tracker at the bottom of the TV picture, tracing the journey of each pie from oven to doorstep. This is the latest in what Tim Conneally of BetaNews calls the “e-pizza zeitgeist.”
Early adopter Papa John’s rolled out online ordering in 2001, in May of 2008 they announced earnings of more than $1B USD from 7 years of online ordering. Domino’s introduced SMS orders in 2007. Pizza Hut released an initially controversial Facebook app in 2008, inspiring negative publicity and requiring a quick upgrade plus some public backpedaling. What was the issue? PH broadcasting personalized pizza habits to one’s FB friends (via spam ads) was greeted with the same indignation and resistance as other early experiments in social advertising on that site (such as news feed and Beacon).
Next the pizza giants launch their own Facebook profile pages so users can narrowcast their pizza fandom among personal networks. When Papa John’s announced a “buy 1 get one free” promotion on FB for PJ fans, their onsite fandom grew by more than 161,000 members in under 5 days. Tasty trusted referral marketing hits the spot.
