By now you’ve probably seen or heard about Domino’s Pizza new advertising campaign for their new pizza recipe. The television spots, created by advertising company Crispin Porter & Bogusky, eschews the traditional marketing tactic of proclaiming their revamped product “New and Improved,” and instead goes on at length harshly criticizing their pizza’s previous recipe using negative quotes from actual customers. The tone of self-deprecation is a bold move considering the potential for customer fallout and that Domino’s pizza is generally thought of as a product of convenience and value rather than deliciousness.
The thought behind the campaign is fairly logical. By going negative, Domino’s is able to get the attention of habitual customers – those who order their pizza more out of expedience than because of its quality – as well as those who avoid Domino’s because of concerns over value or flavor. By courting people who have dismissed Domino’s in the past for producing an inferior product, the company is able to simultaneously point out the culinary elephant in the room while also hopefully incentivizing wayward fast food snobs into giving Domino’s another try.
In addition, the severe self-criticism is so against the norm in advertising that this campaign is sure to result in “viral” word-of-mouth propagation that would not have been possible with traditional advertising. As ad critic Seth Stevenson points out in his article in Slate:
Of course it seems risky for a brand to go negative on itself. But imagine if Domino’s had spent two years and tens of millions of dollars reformulating its pizza (which it did), and then launched the revamped pie with a simple “new and improved” spot. A “We took our great pizza and made it even yummier!” kind of ad. Would anyone notice? Would anyone talk or tweet about the fact that the Domino’s recipe had been altered? “Google the words new andimproved,” says Domino’s chief marketing officer Russell Weiner, “and I think you’ll get about 160 million hits. They’re two of the more overused words in marketing. They’ve become wallpaper.”
Posted in: Advertising
Leave a Reply