ANN ARBOR Mich. Domino’s Pizza, based here, has partnered with digital video recorder service provider TiVo Inc. to allow consumers to order pizzas and track delivery using their TV sets.
TiVo users who see a commercial for Domino’s can click “I want it” through their remote control devices to place orders and can expect delivery in about 30 minutes, said Rob Weisberg, vice president of precision and print marketing for Domino’s. Only TiVo users with broadband Internet access can take advantage of the new ordering gateway, or about 850,000 households, he said.
"This is the first time in history that the "on-demand" generation will be able to fully experience couch commerce by ordering pizza directly through their television set," noted Weisberg.
Domino's officials declined to reveal initial results tied to the new strategy, in terms of added sales or the number of orders placed through the new channel.
Orders placed using TiVo ultimately move across Domino’s’ online ordering system, which is integrated with the store-level point-of-sale systems in nearly all of the chain’s approximately 5,000 U.S. locations.
Weisberg said Domino’s operators must be using the chain’s proprietary Pulse point-of-sale system to take part in the TiVo imitative, but he added that, as of today, “nearly 100 percent” of the system runs that technology. TiVo users also can access Domino’s web-based Pizza Tracker technology for a graphical peek at the progress of their pies from the time they place an order until the food is handed off to the delivery driver, he said.
TiVo subscribers begin ordering Domino’s fare from a variety of entry points on the TiVo user interface, including the areas labeled, “Gold Star Sponsorship,” “Program Placement,” “Interactive Tags” in live TV spots and through “Music, Photos, Products & More.” Once within one of those onscreen areas, they click on “Order Your Domino’s Pizza Now.”
Using the TiVo remote, consumers can customize their orders and enter their delivery address. To save time, they can set up an account at www.dominos.com and use their affiliated account number to quickly log in while navigating TiVo.
Weisberg said that Domino’s one day hopes to make ordering pizza through TiVo and cable TV a one-click routine, but for now that is not possible. “Today, TiVo and cable boxes do not store customer information due to privacy concerns, so customers must log-in or enter their address information to verify their delivery address and identify their local store,” he explained.
Domino's is not paying TiVo transaction fees or amounts beyond a "Gold Sponsor" media buy, of an unspecified amount, according to Weisberg. All of TiVo's approximately 3.6 million subscribers are exposed to Domino's commercials, even if only about a quarter of them can use the online ordering feature at this time, he pointed out. The Domino's executive said TiVo is not paying Domino's any fees but is featuring the chain in "a number of marketing materials to their customers and prospects."
The overall cost of partnering with TiVo, said Weisberg, amounts to “a relatively small percentage of our overall media buy.”
Karen Bressner, senior vice president of advertising sales for Alviso, Calif.-based TiVo, said her company’s partnership with Domino’s “offers yet another advertising solution as commercial avoidance continues to increase.”
