How facing your harshest critics with honesty & transparency changed the future of a company
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?”
Case study
By saying what we said about the pizza, we blew up the bridge. That's what made it so much more powerful. If it didn't work out, there was no place to retreat to. There was no going back.
- Russell Wiener Domino’s CMO, Interview in INC.
The Documentary
An integrated campaign featuring unflinchingly forthright TV, a documentary, and a YouTube homepage takeover told the true story of how Domino’s most painful consumer critiques (“crust tastes like cardboard,” “totally void of flavor” for starters) became motivation for them to improve their pie.
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.
Tell us what you really think about the #newpizza
To further prove our transparency, we did what no company did socially then. Asked for the good, and the bad, feedback on Twitter of what people thought of the new pizza. And we streamed it for all to see on the new pizza landing page
Facing The Critics At Their Door
As part of the next phase of the campaign, we wanted Domino’s harshest critics to try the new pizza recipe, so we had the Domino’s chefs bring it to them when they least expected it, at home.
Turning New Pizza Fans Into Advocates
At a time when Facebook was just becoming a place to market (man I am dating myself now), we engaged the platform in a new way. Our goal was to get as many people to try the new recipe. So we asked new pizza recipe fans on Facebook to use social to get their friends and family who haven’t tried the new pizza (pizza holdouts).
Fans, or bounty hunters, could place “bounties” on pizza holdout’s taste buds using Facebook. Once a bounty was placed on someone, they received a free pizza coupon to Domino’s, and if they claimed it, the “bounty hunter” got a free pizza too as a reward for spreading the love of the new recipe. Through this fun and simple experience, we got even more people to try the new pizza recipe.
Bringing Honesty & Transparency To Our Food Photography
For years food companies have been doing some pretty crazy things and downright dishonest ways to make their food look good in ads. Domino’s decided to buck the food photography tricks and promised to shoot their pizzas just the way they come out of the oven.
To prove it, they asked their customers to help take photos and submit them to be used in Domino's ads. If their photo is used in an ad, they'll get $500.
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