California Pizza Kitchen is celebrating National Pizza Month with a new recipe and two sweepstakes that make use of a mobile-optimized microsite as a hub for all of the contests' information.

The two sweepstakes will be hosted through cpk.com/nationalpizzamonth2016. One sweepstakes encourages users to find hidden pizza dough stashed somewhere in the real world while the second encourages them to find virtual hidden pizza on the mobile-optimized site.

"Mobile is a central component of our marketing strategy at California Pizza Kitchen, " said Ashley Ceraolo, senior vice president of marketing at California Pizza Kitchen. "Our guests are high mobile users who regularly interact with CPK through their mobile devices, so it?s important that we make our brand and our promotions accessible, and in an engaging and convenient way, right where our guests are, on their phones or tablets." 

Hidden pizza dough
California Pizza Kitchen?s Hidden Pizza Dough Scavenger Hunt is offering consumers one of two ways to earn free pizza for an entire year ? one digital and one analog ? each connected through a mobile-optimized microsite.

In the real world, the restaurant chain has hidden pizza dough in 30 select cities around the country. California Pizza Kitchen will gradually reveal hints through the accompanying microsite of each pizza dough?s location.

The first user to solve the puzzles laid out in the hints on the microsite and claim the hidden pizza dough from its hiding place will win free pizza for a year. The dough will be hidden all over the country, from Hawaii all the way to New York.

Thirty winners will be able to claim free pizza for a year if they can find the prize.

Meanwhile, users who are not inclined to go digging around in the real world can also have a chance at free pizza for a year. On the microsite, California Pizza Kitchen has hidden 10 small pizza icons.

If users can find all 10 of them, they can enter their names for a chance to also win a free year of pizza without having to find any of the real-life hidden pizza dough. The winner will be selected randomly from a pool of users who find all 10 and will receive free pizza for a year for him or her and one friend.

In addition, users will be encouraged to sign up for California Pizza Kitchen?s mobile rewards app, CPK?s Pizza Dough. New and existing users can get $10 off an order of $40 or more, incentivizing consumers who have not currently signed up for the app to do so and for existing customers who have not used the app in a while to come back to it.

"The National Pizza Month microsite is an important part of the campaign," Ms. Ceraolo said. "In general, microsites can be a great way to offer all campaign components in an easily accessible, highly interactive and visually appealing one-stop-shop for our guests ? a hub where our regular website, social, eblasts and loyalty platform connect and are fully integrated into the campaign. 

"An added benefit of using a microsite is we can use it to measure various aspects of the campaign to learn and optimize future promotions based on our guests? needs and behaviors."

Power of mobile
California Pizza Kitchen?s mobile offerings have been successful in the past. The Hidden Pizza Dough Scavenger Hunt is a way to entice new customers with flashy rewards while reminding existing customers of the mobile features it currently offers.

Earlier this year, California Pizza Kitchen reported that more than 80 percent of its loyalty members engaged with the rewards program, and by extension, the brand, through mobile (see story). That level of engagement makes mobile a key part of the brand?s marketing strategy.

California Pizza Kitchen has also experimented with other limited-time mobile offers, such as its mobile personality quiz that asked consumers to test their personalities to determine which of the chain?s new house-made wine and sangria flavors is best for them (see story).

One-time promotions, which tend to have higher visibility due to their limited time frames, make for a strong way to get users to engage with the more long-term aspects of a brand?s marketing strategy, such as its rewards app. Hosting its twin sweepstakes through a mobile microsite means California Pizza Kitchen is keenly aware of the power the mobile channel presents.

"National Pizza Month is one of our favorite times of year at California Pizza Kitchen, where we get to celebrate with our guests a shared love of all things pizza," Ms. Ceraolo said. "In conceiving this year?s promotion, our biggest priority was in customer engagement ? creating a unique and memorable opportunity for our guests and pizza fans to engage with our brand."