The Power of Free Pizza
It is hard not to be a fan of free pizza. Most people love pizza and even show their appreciation for it by celebrating National Pizza Month every year. During National Pizza Month in October of 2019, the pizza company, DiGiorno, decided to offer free pizza to customers who tweeted #DeliveryDiGiorno. They wanted to capitalize on the surge in conversation among pizza lovers and stay trending on Twitter. This was a smart move because every National Pizza Month, you will see the word “pizza” trending.
This campaign was able to give DiGiorno much organic engagement. They used promoted tweets and trends to draw attention to their campaign. They were able to increase brand awareness by staying relevant for a whole month and having customers share the campaign with people who were not familiar with what DiGiorno was doing. I currently eat more Dominos and Pizza Hut than DiGiorno’s, but if I had seen that they were giving free pizza to those who tweeted the hashtag, I would have done it as well because who does not love the opportunity to win free pizza?
The promoted trend received over 55 million impressions, and many comments after DiGiorno ran a contest asking customers for input on which cities should be chosen for the delivery destinations. This captured the attention of many people and made the audience growth rate increase. The hashtag was being shared, and it generated 8.5 million Tweet impressions. DiGiorno succeeded in getting the audience involved with their brand.
Even though this campaign happened two years ago, and I cannot see how much their Twitter following increased, it is safe to assume that they received more followers since people kept participating in their campaign. Since only certain cities would get the free pizza, many users were actively monitoring the account and participating until the results were announced. Thus, web traffic increased because many Twitter users using the platform saw the hashtag trending and visited DiGiorno’s Twitter account, which has the website linked to it.
Besides pleasing people by offering them free pizza, DiGiorno’s was making their brand more popular by targeting a larger audience through the Twitter platform. They are making the brand have a voice and giving it a good look. Many will think, “wow, that brand is awesome for giving free pizza on National Free Pizza Month!” It shows that the brand cares about its customers and wants to show them that they appreciate them. More than 1,100 fans received a free pizza that month, and many of them who received it tweeted back to DiGiorno giving thanks.
As for the ROI, DiGiorno ran a promoted trend spotlight on Twitter that encouraged users to tweet the hashtag #DeliverDiGiorno with the name of the city they wished DiGiorno would deliver to. Spotlight on Twitter is an explore tab that leaves the advertisement for a 24-hour window so that users can see it and click on it. Due to the excellent results this campaign had, it is safe to say that positive results from social media were obtained to increase ROI. The cost per click was lower than the maximum bid because of how successful the ad was. DiGiorno was not the only brand competing for attention on National Pizza Month. However, by combining a great offer and attention-grabbing content, DiGiorno could catch the audience’s interest and increase their engagement on Twitter.
So why did it work? Basically, DiGiorno saw an opportunity and decided to take it. They took advantage of National Pizza Month when they knew people would be talking about it and craving pizza. I like to follow national food holidays because I get joy from knowing I am participating in a scrumptious national activity. Just like me, there are probably thousands who love to participate as well. What a better opportunity than to have the chance to win free pizza.
DiGiorno was smart to combine organic interest and promoted tweets to create an authentic buzz around their brand and incentivized participation by offering pizza for engaging in the campaign hashtag. They brought the Twitter community together and earned new fans as well as loyalty with current supporters. This campaign had a positive sentiment rating of 78 percent; it demonstrated that brands could increase awareness and achieve their goals through the use of social media.
