Domino's plays affordability card with 'Pehli Kamayi' campaign

The latest campaign promotes the 'Pizza Mania' range. The objective is to inspire people to celebrate small moments of happiness.

In its latest campaign titled 'Pehli Kamayi', Domino's extends its existing tagline 'Yeh Hai Rishton ka Time', by playing the affordability card for its 'Pizza Mania' product offering. The campaign insists that despite a meager first salary, one can still party with this new range of pizzas, thanks to its affordable price (Rs 44 per pizza).

Quick recap: Domino's entered the Indian market 17 years ago. After the initial 'Hungry Kya' statement, came the promise of 'Home Delivery', a space it occupied for 12 years, before the brand thought there was more to it. Consequently, it was re-positioned to 'Khushiyon ki Home Delivery' on the back of the belief that 'Pizza time' is not just lunch or dinner time, but is, instead, 'happiness in togetherness'.

Four years down the line, the brand realised that 'Khushiyan' is an overused proposition; this led to another re-positioning exercise with 'Yeh Hai Rishton ka Time' as the outcome. The belief, this time around, was that 'Pizza time' not just brings happiness but also strengthens bonds between people.

Now, taking this forward, Domino's has launched two television commercials, one of which shows a boy working in a dinosaur costume in an amusement park (already on air) while the other shows a girl working as a model in a tourism fair (to be aired by the month-end, for which over 35 slots across genres have been booked). Both films end with celebratory scenes of the protagonists sitting with their friends and family enjoying Domino's pizza with the salary they get from these jobs.

Besides using promotional online banners, Domino's has also initiated a Facebook contest to support the TV burst. To participate, people need to upload pictures of their first job. The prize is BTL-related; the winners will be given the opportunity to work for a day in a mall as a dinosaur (as shown in the TVC) and in return, the brand will offer Pizza Mania parties at their homes. Domino's is also planning to shoot a music video around this activity, and subsequently, release the same online and on music channels.

Harneet Singh, vice president, marketing, Domino's Pizza India, says, "The idea behind the campaign was simple - price point affordability. Many people begin with small jobs and small salaries, especially students on their summer breaks, who do odd jobs for pocket money. Thus, the idea was to show how only at Rs 44 per pizza, you can celebrate and party." The marketing budget for this campaign is between Rs 8- 10 crore.

Juju Basu, executive creative director, Contract Advertising, (the agency that has created this campaign), says, "All of us have experienced the joy and satisfaction of getting our first pay cheque. That is the emotion that we wanted to use as a concept." The campaign, he says, is an ode to "those little joys that make for big moments."

Interestingly, Domino's has decided to steer clear of the ongoing IPL. Singh says, "Though IPL has large reach, it is an extremely costly property. We did not want to block our money with one property and lose focus on other media. So we decided against it."

The organised pizza market includes players such as Pizza Hut, Papa John's and Slice of Italy amongst others. According to the Euro Monitor Report 2011, Domino's, overall, shares 62 per cent of the organised pizza business in India, and holds 70 per cent of the market share in the home delivery sections. Singh reveals that these days, the brand gets equal revenues from both dine-ins and home deliveries.

Reason to celebrate?

Yes, even if we exclude the brownie points, adfolk are tossing in, courtesy the dinosaur! Since the product is low-priced and a large part of the audiences are 'first-jobbers', the proposition will find takers, reason our reviewers.

For Raghu Bhatt, co-founder, Scarecrow Communications, the product is woven seamlessly into the plot, such that the result is "a commendable piece of communication."

He says, "It is based on a true insight of happiness derived from one's first pay. The dianosaur bit makes it clutter-cutting. It's a commendable piece of communication."

Bhat further acknowledges the brand's effort to move from the 'happiness home delivered' space to 'an enricher of human relationships' space. "By saying 'party badhi honi chahiye', the brand underlines the importance of celebrating the small victories with your friends. This is very apt," he states.

Brijesh Jacob, managing partner, White Canvas/22feet, finds the ad "intriguing", "tight" and "well crafted". "Though difficult to understand at first glance, the context became clear as the film progressed," he says, adding, "the dinosaur has broken clutter and is very well used."

Jacob, however, points out that the only thing that didn't sit well with him is the last line in the dinosaur film where one of the friends says, "Mention this in your CV..."