This month, Domino’s Pizza launched a campaign in the United States that asks consumers to submit entries into the Domino’s Pizza Proverbs Contest. The winning proverbs will be printed on Domino’s Pizza boxes in the future.
The contest is fun in and of itself, but Domino’s, whose brand image has been tainted in recent years, is adding a social media element to the campaign that should spread the Domino’s brand love even further. Not only can people submit their own proverbs, but they can also share their proverbs and the proverbs they like with a simple mouse click via Twitter and Facebook.
Judging will be based on creativity, originality and proper use of grammar. However, the biggest miss in this contest is not allowing people to vote for the winner. The prize is small so within a few days since the contest launched, only 535 proverbs had been submitted. If this contest had a bigger prize and additional social media elements, it could be huge.
A few of the recently submitted proverbs are particularly favorable for the Domino’s brand image, including, “Beauty is only cheese deep, but true deliciousness comes from within.” Others are simply entertaining, such as, “To leave the last slice is to be loved. To eat the last slice is to be happy.”
The lesson to learn is this: asking consumers to participate in events, activities, campaigns, and contests that can help to build your brand image is a great idea, but don’t be afraid to take the initiative to the next level of social sharing and interaction.
What do you think?
Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.