Dive Brief:
- Domino's Pizza and IFTTT teamed up to make branded applets that orchestrate even easier pizza delivery. One of the Domino’s-branded applets will turn on the porch lights when the delivery person is near, while another applet suspends the sprinkler system, if necessary. There’s also the ability to turn on specific Samsung smart vacuum cleaners to tidy up before dinner arrives, Engadget reported.
- Households that use IFTTT technology can go to its website to download the Domino’s applets that work with Harmony TV, Hue lights, Android messaging, LIFX porch lights, Samsung Powerbot appliances, the Rachio Smart sprinkler controller and Google Mail.
- Domino’s is the first restaurant chain to link up with IFTTT, and also allows ordering through Apple Watch, Amazon Echo, Facebook Messenger, Google Home and Twitter.
Dive Insight:
Domino’s wants to be perceived as a tech-savvy brand with Chief Digital Officer Dennis Maloney telling Advertising Age last year that the company has gone from being a pizza maker than sells online to an e-commerce company that sells pizza. IFTTT, which stands for If This Then That, is a web service that lets users easily create chains of commands and build simple integrated experiences across software and hardware.
By partnering with the service, Domino's is making sure it remains top of mind with first adopters as they look to get their phone to communicate with their lawn sprinkler, for example. Other branded applets on the platform enabling New York Times readers to save articles to Pocket, track daily Fitbit activity in a Google spreadsheet and back up photos a user is tagged in on Facebook to an iOS Photos album.
Digital marketing for restaurants is taking off this year, according to survey results from FastCasual.com, with social media ad spending rising 20% and search engine promotions growing by 36% percent from a year earlier. Meanwhile, direct mail and television advertising are in decline, the survey found.
Domino’s stock has risen 51% in the 12 months, even as the restaurant industry has stalled alongside brick-and-mortar retailers. The pizza chain’s same-store sales rose more than 10% during Q1 from a year earlier, the 24th straight quarter of growth.
