Pizza Hut is taking an unorthodox approach to getting customers to try mobile ordering by introducing a pair of sneakers with a pizza-ordering button on them.

The shoes connect to a separate mobile application and let consumers order pizza through them with a press of a button. While out-of-the-ordinary, the move is an interesting and unique method to raise awareness about the brand’s mobile ordering options while appealing to young consumers who are into sneaker culture.

“This is a unique and cool marketing effort and will help spread the word of mouth factor and broadcast B roll usage for the pizza chain, taking additional advantage of March Madness,” said Marci Troutman, founder and CEO of Siteminis. “It is a bit of a challenge to really test this unique pairing of technology, sports and fast food with only 64 pairs of this custom sneaker being made.

“Chances are these will be given away or sold to very important individuals for maximum exposure,” she said.

Pie Tops
Attracting customers to use mobile payments has proved to be the biggest obstacle to their proliferation in the market.

While developing nations have taken to them much more due to their convenience when banks and credit cards are more scarce, here in the US, mobile payments have not risen as fast as some may have hoped.

While mobile payments are growing in popularity, some brands have elected to help entice customers to try mobile ordering and payments through unique campaigns.

Pizza Hut is no different, thanks to a new campaign featuring, of all things, shoes that let customers order pizza through them.

The Pizza Hut “Pie Tops” as they are called, come with a built-in button on the side of the shoe that will let customers order a pizza.

It works by connecting the shoes to a mobile app that customers can download ont heir smart device.

From there, they set their preferences of what kind of pizza they would like to order when they press the button. Then it is only a matter of pressing the button to order the pizza.

The idea is also to highlight Pizza Hut’s partnership with NCAA basketball. 64 pairs were made in total, matching the 64-team March Madness tournament.

Mobile ordering
Pizza Hut has been at the forefront of the mobile ordering trend, and part of its strategy has been to bring ordering options to every channel imaginable.

While most were fairly standard, including chatbots, social media ordering and even through Amazon Alexa (see story), Pizza Hut is proving that, through mobile, almost anything can be a commercial channel.

This philosophy is one that is currently making its way through the market as many brands are waking up to the idea that mobile can be a powerful channel for commerce, not just online but in-store as well.

For example, one of the biggest names in fast food, McDonald’s, just announced that mobile would be central to its growth plan over the next few years (see story).

“While this will generate buzz, this is not a new concept,” said Wilson Kerr, vice president of business development and sales at Unbound Commerce. “A start-up called Push For Pizza was based on this idea (they flamed out spectacularly) and the Domino’s app supports 1-touch ordering.

“Amazon’s Dash buttons can be stuck to products for instant re-ordering,” he said. “Products serving as touch-points for mobile sales has long been touted as a big opportunity, but it’s been very slow to take off, because it’s not solving a problem people have.

“For example, the sneaker buttons are tethered to an app users have to download and register in, so it’s no harder to open the app and tap than bend over and pinch the tongue of your shoes (which does the same thing). Even as a gimmick, this stunt will no doubt be well-supported and cross-promoted, which will generate a lot of multichannel buzz that, these days, can be just as impactful as actual sales.”