According to the company, within the first five weeks of the roll-out, the franchisee enrolled more consumers in its mobile loyalty program than they had in 18 months of promoting their email-based program. CiCi’s is leveraging Sundrop Mobile Loyalty for the initiative.

CiCi’s Pizza is an American buffet restaurant chain based in Coppell, TX, specializing in pizza.

Sundrop’s cardless mobile loyalty program uses a consumer’s mobile number as their loyalty card.

Mobile loyalty
CiCi’s worked with Sundrop to integrate the loyalty program into the customer check-out process.

The company is using Sundrop’s closed-loop marketing system to track the precise impact of the program on same-store sales.

The CiCi’s mobile loyalty program replaces plastic loyalty cards with customers’ mobile phones.

The company can focus solely on registering customers into their loyalty program at the point-of-sale.

In addition to collecting customers’ mobile numbers, Sundrop automatically connects CiCi’s with its customers via Facebook and Twitter, as well as collects email addresses, which enhance email-based programs.

Market demographic
According to Sundrop, CiCi’s Pizza of Tampa’s market demographic skews much older than most other market areas.

CiCi’s has a strong presence with younger families and saw that its mobile and social loyalty program can also produce dramatic results for demographics that are not typically considered strong users of mobile and social media.

The CiCi’s deployment adds to Sundrop’s list of companies who have used its mobile and social loyalty program in the pizza segment, which includes a Little Caesar’s franchisee earlier this year.

Pizza please
CiCi’s is not the only pizza company dipping its toes in the mobile space.

Pizza Hut recently expanded its mobile offerings with applications for the iPad and Android platforms and is updating its existing iPhone app at the same time (see story).

Additionally, Domino’s is showing that it is a force to reckon with in the mobile ordering arena via a new iPad app that lets pizza lovers customize and order their favorite pies (see story).

Final Take
Rimma Kats is staff reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York