Prior to Recess our sampling process was very manual and required tons of time, attention, and detail.
– Camille Dykes, Marketing Manager, &pizza
The goal
&pizza, a fast-growing pizza restaurant, wanted to acquire new college student customers and drive in-store sales in 3 key markets
In the past, &pizza hired brand ambassadors to facilitate sampling events, which involved working with third-party staffing agencies. The sampling process was manual and required the team to spend inefficient amounts of time, attention, and detail to execute.
As the COVID pandemic continued to impact live events, the &pizza team shifted to coupon distribution to drive trial and traffic at local pizza shops. Recess was tasked with identifying an impactful coupon distribution approach to reach and convert college students into customers.
The strategy
Partner with student housing complexes to distribute a "$5 Pie" offer to incentivize trial during the first day on campus.
Recess greeted students on college move-in day with unique coupon codes for $5 redeemable in stores through the &pizza app. The coupons were included in Welcome Home gift bags inside their new apartments, along with several other products from brands catered to their interests. With Recess's retail store targeting capability, &pizza was able to geo-target college apartment complexes that were within 2 miles of store locations and deliver coupons to customers who were likely to make a purchase.
The success
10% conversion rate translated to 1,460 new customers for &pizza
&pizza coupons were introduced in environments that maximized exposure to a core demographic—hungry college students who live near &pizza locations and want to save money. This resulted in 1460 new customers that downloaded the &pizza app, signed up for an account and redeemed the $5 pizza offer. This translated to a 10% conversion rate on coupons distributed, which brought the brand a 102% ROI for the ad spend.
Recess allowed us to maximize our time and efforts to increase awareness and generate sales in key shops/markets near college campuses.
– Camille Dykes, Marketing Manager at &pizza
The campaign resulted in operational efficiencies as well—by partnering with Recess, &pizza was able to streamline the campaign process and see a 98% decrease in time spent coordinating the coupon campaign compared to past sampling events.
Recess streamlined the logistical process of executing sampling programs and reduced the amount of time spent by 97%, which empowered the team at &pizza to efficiently accomplish more with limited resources.
