A social purpose done right.

A social purpose done right.

Domino’s Pizza is doing good to advance social media by aligning with their value proposition. Potholes and popped tires were enough for Dominos Pizza – you can imagine the impact on pizza delivery – to use the power of their digital customer base to create the campaign, Paving for Pizza. Using social media to encourage consumers to nominate their town, Domino’s had, to date, helped Bartonville, Texas; Milford, Delaware; Athens, Georgia, and Burbank, California in repairing roads in their cities.

To qualify, the work is mostly, if no all, fixing potholes, but that alone can make a huge different for municipalities strapped for cash and staff, and a company dependent on roads to fulfill their brand promise.

Equipment World magazine calls Domino’s Pizza’s campaign, “…a marketing ploy. But it’s the best kind of marketing ploy,” in their article titled, Domino’s, yes the pizza chain, starts paving roads. Because somebody has to. According to several sources, the campaign wasn’t without risk. Addressing the problem of road maintenance could put Dominos  at risk with local governments while solving a problem that wasn’t their responsibility in the first place.

“It’s a campaign that makes sense for their business, which is a beautiful thing,” says James Simonetta, Social Purpose Done Right: “Paving for Pizza” at HustleDigital.

Dominos has responded to the ‘dog whistle’ of creating brand communities and is effectively developing clever and cost-effective publicity. The company is using social acts with an upside for the greater good to engage with their community, build a presence, and ultimately create a brand community of loyal customers.

Strong digital rand communities are changing traditional advertising campaigns. Engaging an audience in an active, non-intrusive way initiates customer conversation and loyalty. Domino’s has made themselves the obvious choice for pizza take-out and deliver by doing social good and creating talk amongst social platforms. Brands such as Starbucks and Burt’s bees are suing the power of social media to build loyal brand communities and give back to the consumers.

Starbucks is known for its incredibly loyal customer base. Engaging personally with customers via Twitter has allowed the coffee chain to create ongoing consumer relationships. Similar to Domino’s, Starbucks created a campaign for the relaunch of their renowned pumpkin spice lattes in 2011. This campaign allowed consumers to nominate their towns online for a chance to receive the flavor a week before the rest of the U.S. More information here.

Less is more. Burt’s Bees has used a very simple social media approach to generate its brand community. Using Twitter, Burt’s Bees launched a hash tag campaign to #BringBacktheBees. Tweeters omit “b” from one of their tweets and use the appropriate hashtag. For each tweet, Burt’s Bees will plan 1,000 wildflowers to help restore the endangered bee population. The brand creates a community of like-minded people who suppose their values and missions. Read more here:

For the small dent Domino’s has made in ultimately re-paving the nations streets – just 53 filled potholes nationwide – it has created noise all over digital platforms. The goes to show that it doesn’t always take much to do a lot. Domino’s campaign highlights the power of simple digital strategies. Easy and cost-effective, community marketing techniques are beginning to pave new roads in the worlds of marketing and advertising. People are more willing to give (buy from), those who give back.

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