Brief:

• Barstool Sports' new pizza-ordering app was downloaded 175,000 times in the first month of its launch, marking a key brand extension for the sports media company, Digiday reported. The One Bite app — based on Barstool's digital video series of the same name — lets users place orders, read reviews of pizza joints and share comments.
• One Bite's iOS users placed more than 10,000 delivery orders and posted more than 14,000 reviews in the first month. The app provides access to more than 104,000 restaurants and is integrated with pizza delivery app Slice for mobile ordering.
• Frank's Red Hot sponsors both the app and video series, which averages 796,000 views per episode among online platforms. The show stars Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who has visited and reviewed more than 450 pizza restaurants in New York, Boston and other cities. Barstool Sports last week created a test version of the One Bite app for Android.

Insight:

Barstool Sports' pizza app demonstrates how the media company is leveraging the popularity of its online shows into e-commerce — specifically mobile commerce — opportunities. The "One Bite" show started as a bit that featured Portnoy visiting a pizza place, taking a single bite and giving it a review on a scale of one to 10. The show grow from there, and the app has since introduced the brand to a wider audience outside of its core fanbase, generating more than 3.6 million viewer minutes for the show and video reviews, according to Barstool.

The One Bite app also provides the media company an additional revenue stream, as it collects a commission for referrals to Slice, although the company declined to provide financial details, per Digiday. Barstool is seeking similar brand-sponsored promotions and is considering how to offer discounts in the app for a variety of products and services, including soft drinks and banks. However, while it has Frank's Red Hot as a sponsor, other brands might be wary of brand safety issues as the media company has had its share of controversy.

The launch of One Bite comes as the National Football League season — and peak pizza-ordering — kicks off, with pizza brands everywhere ramping up their marketing campaigns. Pizza Hut this month introduced Game Plan, a new digital platform as part of its Hut Rewards program, for its first national campaign as the official pizza sponsor of the NFL. The platform lets customers receive notifications about their favorite NFL teams, enter to win football-themed prizes and unlock deals.