Domino’s Smooths the Customer Journey by Paving Roads

Domino’s Pizza partnered with Crispin Porter + Bogusky to ask customers what roads in their area needed repairs. They gave grants to municipalities in charge of maintaining those roads and used the repairs as the basis for an advertising campaign. The campaign received 1.1 billion traditional media impressions and generated excitement among customers.

Domino’s Smooths the Customer
Journey by Paving Roads
By: Hal Conick
Key Takeaways
What? Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Domino’s advertising agency of record, suggested that
the pizza chain embark on an infrastructure-based advertising campaign.
So what? “The first time I heard the idea, it was obvious to me that it really was a
breakthrough, unique idea that would resonate and demonstrate our obsession and passion
with pizza,” says Kate Trumbull, vice president of advertising at Domino’s Pizza.
Now what? The campaign received 1.1 billion traditional media impressions from its launch
in June 2018 through November.
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Goal
People hate potholes. Drivers dislike being surprised by mid-road jolts and hate fixing the
all-too-common damage to their vehicles—the American Automobile Association reports
that potholes cost U.S. drivers an annual average of $3 billion in repairs. And just think of
how all those bumps in the road could ruin mid-transit pizzas!
OK, drivers don’t likely think much about how potholes might ruin their pizzas, but the
advertising team at Domino’s Pizza has. Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Domino’s advertising
agency of record, suggested that the pizza chain ask customers what roads in their area
needed repairs. CP+B pitched that Domino’s would give a grant to the municipality in

charge of maintaining that road, then use the repairs as the backbone of an infrastructure-
based advertising campaign.
“The first time I heard the idea, it was obvious to me that it really was a breakthrough,
unique idea that would resonate and demonstrate our obsession and passion with pizza,”
says Kate Trumbull, vice president of advertising at Domino’s Pizza.
Trumbull says that the Domino’s ad team saw pothole repair as an opportunity to ease their
customers’ journey—after all, why should a bad road get in the way of good pizza? It also fit
with the company’s previous campaign: Domino’s had given customers “carryout insurance”
on their pizzas. Domino’s replaced ruined pizzas—whether damaged by potholes, a
ravenous dog or a slip-and-fall accident—so long as the customer returned the cheesy
remains.
Trumbull says that the idea of taking customer requests for road repairs was revolutionary,
but she had no idea how they’d pull it off. Who would they work with? Were local
municipalities even interested in taking money for potholes, money that historically comes
from public funds? She had no clue.
Action
Before launching the campaign, Domino’s and CP+B cold-called municipalities to see if
they’d be interested in road-repair grants. The duo became familiar with the winding-but-
staid nature of working with local government; sometimes, they’d find the right person on
the first call, other times it took multiple callbacks, pass-forwards and long games of phone
tag. “It can test you and test your patience,” Trumbull says. “But getting those early
confirmations that this could work really motivated the team to keep pushing.”
Trumbull realized that many local governments were as excited by the idea as she was.
Cities with small budgets seemed especially thrilled: “They really wanted to work with us
and make it happen,” she says. Some governments had no interest, but Trumbull heard
enough positive responses that she became more excited by the idea. The campaign would
help the company sell more pizzas and drive brand buzz, she believed, but it would also be
uniquely engaging.
“We want consumers to know no other brand loves pizza more than we do,” Trumbull says.

In late 2017, Domino’s began work on its Paving for Pizza campaign. Domino’s awarded
grants to four cities that it had cold-called. On Dec. 12, 2017, road crews paved eight
potholes across three roads in Bartonville, Texas, the first city to be awarded a paving
grant. The crew used a road roller branded with a Domino’s sticker—a video filmed by
Domino’s shows the roller moving backwards to reveal a branded stencil with the
company’s logo and the tagline, “Oh yes we did.” Then, in March, Domino’s awarded a
grant to Milford, Delaware, where crews repaired 10 roads. In April, crews in Athens,
Georgia, repaved 150 square yards of failing roadway.
On June 11, 2018, Domino’s sent out a press release and launched a microsite where
customers could submit requests for roads in their area that needed repairs. The website
also served as a place to show off successfully paved roads, as well as statistics and
reactions. Stephen Bailey, the program development coordinator of Athens, is quoted on
the Paving for Pizza microsite as saying that this grant was “certainly a new type of
opportunity for us.”
Within the first week, customers sent in 47,197 nominations for repairs.
Then, social media exploded with chatter and Trumbull’s phone glowed and buzzed. “My
mom called me, my aunts and uncles were texting me,” she says. “People are just like,
wow, Domino’s is seriously doing this?”
Although Domino’s ad team was excited, they kept their media budget steady throughout
the campaign. They’d reach out to franchisees to let them know that they had given a
paving grant in their area, Trumbull says, and franchisees would often send their own press
releases or bring pizzas to the road crews. But after the initial press releases and ads, the
campaign spread most successfully by word of mouth.
“People bring it up with me,” Trumbull says. “‘Are you guys really paving?’ And when you
hear that, something has really struck a chord.”
Result
In Andrew Essex’s 2017 book, The End of Advertising, he touted an infrastructure
advertising approach as the future of ads. Essex, who currently serves as CEO of marketing
company Plan A, had simple reasons: Print ads haven’t worked in 20 years, TV viewers see

commercials as more annoying than informative and internet users can wield adblockers to
rid their screens of pop-ups and sidebar ads. His main point: Companies need to get
creative and push beyond all-too-familiar ads or risk becoming irrelevant. It’s no surprise,
then, that Essex had nice things to say about Domino’s campaign: “Absolutely brilliant,” he
says. “Anytime that you can find whitespace or surface that isn’t mediated into a
communication channel, you’ve done something brilliant.”
Brilliant campaigns get brilliant results: Jenny Fouracre-Petko, Domino’s director of public
relations and charitable giving, says that the campaign received 1.1 billion traditional media
impressions from its launch in June 2018 through November.
Trumbull says that during that same period, the microsite drew 170,000 nominations for
road repairs from 16,000 unique zip codes. The microsite itself received 500,000 hits during
that time. Trumbull says that the company doesn’t share sales data, but simply called the
results “strong and successful.”
Domino’s has continued to give grants for road repairs. As of November 2018, Trumbull
says that they’ve given grants to pave 11 towns, with 20 more local governments reviewing
grant agreements. Domino’s even decided to give grants to municipalities in all 50 states;
Trumbull hopes to see the last roads paved by Spring 2019, at latest.
Outside of success metrics, Trumbull says that the excitement generated by the campaign
was unique. She had no idea people would get so passionate about a paving campaign;
franchisees started matching Domino’s donations to pave roads and Trumbull even
received pictures of people dressed as a Domino’s road crew for Halloween.
“It’s exceeded expectations,” she says.
While the Paving for Pizza campaign finished at the end of 2018—save for some straggler
roads still to be paved—Trumbull hopes that Domino’s can create more campaigns that
address friction points in the customer journey.
“For us, this wasn’t about infrastructure; this is really about pizza,” she says.