July 28, 2009

Viral video sheds positive light on pizzerias
Contest helps prospects build their business

The pizza industry has had a couple of hard hits lately - a downturn in the economy coupled with a YouTube video showing employees misbehaving that seriously damaged consumer perception and threw Domino's into crisis mode.

In response, mystery shopping firm Corporate Research International has found a unique way to market its small business mystery shopping program to independent pizzerias experiencing turbulent times.

Using new marketing techniques, including a viral video component on YouTube, CRI has launched the “Missing Slice Award” contest.

Consumers are asked to visit www.missingslice.com to nominate their favorite independent pizza shop and be entered into drawing for a chance to win $1,000 worth of pizza from that establishment. 

“It was an easy way to get the business names out there without spending loads of money,” says Brad Holdgreve, Vice President at CRI. “This is a way to reach customers without haven’t to purchase lists or embark on costly direct mail campaigns.”

Once a pizza shop is nominated, CRI gets to work. To raise local awareness about the pizzeria’s nomination and to bolster votes, CRI helps pizza shops market their nomination within their local communities through flyers, press releases and a video that pizza shops can feature on their web site.

To promote the campaign, CRI developed a YouTube video that aims to mitigate the infamous Domino’s video by humorously delivering a critical message for pizza shop owners: “Employees ARE doing what they’re supposed to be doing!”  To date the video has received over 800 hits.

“We follow up with everyone that is nominated,” says Holdgreve, “and spread the word that there are pizza places that are doing it right.”

After only a couple of days, the campaign has generated hundreds of entries and awareness among pizza shop owners and consumers.

When the campaign wraps up at the end of September, the pizza shop with the most number of submissions will receive the Missing Slice Award. In addition, all submissions for the winning pizza shop will be entered into a drawing to win $1,000 worth of pizza from the winning pizza shop, courtesy of Corporate Research International.