Domino's Delivers With Truth In Advertising - No Lie!

In today's Advertising Age, an article addresses one of the most brilliant and potentially dangerous ad campaigns we've seen in some time.

With new CMO, Russell Weiner in place, the 2000+ pizza chain was in trouble. Taking a research approach the company came to painfully realize that their product sucked. They needed a major overhaul from the ground up and rather than glossing over their reputation of delivering sub-par pie, whose tastelessness was often outdone by its poor presentation and a blurring between pizza and pizza box, Domino's called it out.

For me, this speaks to the new age of conversational marketing. We don't own our brands, we can only do what we can to shape them. In today's era of social media, consumer ratings a la Yelp, and micro-publishing like this very blog here, Domino's embraced the masses, their gripes and their bad reputation and out in the public eye, turned it all around and allowed pizza fans everywhere to have a voice in the transformation.

This is probably the best example ever of a major brand embracing the power of social media and crowdsourcing and combining it with the reach and emotional impact of traditional media. Not to sounds like a socialist, but Domino's Pizza became the Pizza of the People.

With Gap's recent logo redesign debacle, and legions of social media micro publishing bashing the new design, you have to wonder - was this a true misstep in a major re-branding initiative or just a publicity stunt? Whatever it was, they sure got out there in the press - although was it truth or was it just puppet masters pulling on some strings?

One thing is for sure, Domino's addressed their brand at it's core and came out with a makeover that's driven sales up over 30% in one year. Can you say cha-ching?

Today's world is no longer about one way communications telling people what a brand should mean to them - it's a 2-way conversation that addresses brands at every conceivable touch point. The Mad Men world of smoke and mirrors is over. As marketers, our new challenge is to truly shape market-driven products and brands, that our target audiences love and buy and make part of their lives. Embrace the masses or the next time you look over your shoulder they may be coming after you with pitchforks, burning torches and a taste for your brand's blood.

To read the Advertising Age article, please visit:

http://adage.com/article?article_id=146782