California Pizza Kitchen is inviting consumers to discover their pizza personality on a mobile and online platform, evoking the quizzes often seen on social media to drive sales for two-limited edition menu items.

The chain is bringing back two pizza favorites, the Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza and Shrimp Scampi Pizza for the month of October, dubbed as Pizza Month. California Pizza Kitchen is taking to mobile, making use of consumer trends and pairing it all with a contest to ensure the products see their potential in sales.

“More and more today, consumers are looking to their mobile devices as a means for information and entertainment,” said Ashley Ceraolo, vice president of marketing at California Pizza Kitchen. “About 70 percent of our guests use mobile devices to reach us online.

“Mobile optimization gives us the opportunity to share our pizza authority during National Pizza Month with our guests as well as potential new guests to CPK in the palm of their hands, no matter where they are,” she said. “With mobile optimization, we get the opportunity to engage with mobile users and interact with them with fun content like videos, storytelling and games that could lead to them winning $200 in gift cards for California Pizza Kitchen.

“All of this engagement with the brand in a fun and readily available way leads to trial and discovery in the restaurant.”

Happy Pizza Month
For the month of October, California Pizza Kitchen is celebrating its history with National Pizza Month. The retailer has created a mobile, digital haven in which consumers can engage with a variety of content related to the month-long celebration to increase sales.

The mobile-optimized site displays a variety of pizza-related jokes to employ a playful banter with consumers. For instance, a section of the micro site is labeled Cheesy Pickup Lines, and features a variety of corn pickup lines regarding pizza such as “hey wanna veg out,” and “I love you even though you do not have a lot of dough.”

To entice users even more the retailer is offering a reward of $10 off $40 or more by registering for its rewards program. CPK is giving away a variety of gift cards to users who engage in its pizza personality quiz.

Mobile and desktop users fill out questions such as which toppings are a must-have and what is consumers first thought when it comes to ordering pizza. Once the quiz is complete, participants are served a personality associate with their eating habits, such as the Pizza Thief, describing a social butterfly who enjoys trying their friends’ food.

The platform integrates with consumers’ social media profiles, and users can share their results, an effort which will expand the campaign and further increase sales.

Jumping on trends
Dunkin’ Donuts also leveraged a social media trend and continued to ramp up its bet on Snapchat from both a content-creation and advertising standpoint by offering a one-day geofilter to boost engagement with its National Coffee Day promotion (see more).

Also, The Wendy’s Co. differentiated itself from the slew of fast food chains rolling out mobile-optimized games by attempting to bolster awareness and sales for the newly returned Pulled Pork BBQ Sandwich via a variety of choose-your-own-adventure YouTube videos (see more).

“National Pizza Month celebrates our and our guests’ love of pizza,” Ms. Ceraolo said. “We are reinventing our guests’ favorite classics, and bringing them back by popular demand: the Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza and the Shrimp Scampi Pizza.

“This campaign brings awareness that these favorites are back to fans and newcomers alike, and encourages trial in a fun, visual and engaging way,” she said. “The campaign incorporates video highlighting our Culinary Innovator, Brian Sullivan, hand-tossing these classics in the kitchen that gives us the opportunity to really highlight the fresh and unique flavor profiles of these pizzas.

“We are hosting a fun Pizza Personality pop-up quiz via the microsite that lets users find their unique pizza identity and share it with their friends on their social channels. We also have an exclusive $10 off $40 offer available to reward our loyal Pizza Dough Rewards members and guests that register for our loyalty program during National Pizza Month. All the more reason to come in to try one of our limited time pizzas.”

Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Commerce Daily