Jim Ensign knows pizza. He has overseen online marketing for Papa John’s for three years.
Since 2001, when the online ordering service kicked off, more than 25 million orders have been placed. Since Ensign took over, sales have grown by more than 50% per year, totaling over $200 million in 2006.
Ensign has his sights set on maintaining that pace.
A slate of promotions, incentives and entertainment tie-ins have already helped boost sales. Most recently, Superman could be seen flying across pizza box tops, and any customer who lived on Lois Lane got a free pizza if they ordered online. The promotion played off of the DVD release of Superman Returns.
PROMO recently spoke with Ensign, Papa John’s vice president of marketing communications, about PapaJohns.com and the marketing strategy behind it.
PROMO: How important is the online ordering service to your business?
ENSIGN: It really goes back to the customer experience and trying to make the whole process of ordering pizza as fun and as convenient as possible. People don’t always have the time or desire to get on the phone and wait for a customer service representative. We find Internet ordering fits into peoples’ lifestyles.
PROMO: How has your online promotion strategy evolved?
ENSIGN: We have substantially increased our marketing, utilizing online channels to promote PapaJohns.com. We’ve doubled our investment in online media, using banners, e-mails and search to drive people online and to drive Papa John’s promotions, products and services.
PROMO: What role do promotions play?
ENSIGN: Promotions are essential for us. A lot of marketers use their Web sites to just advertise their products, but we are all about driving transactions. It’s about getting people involved on our site. We do a lot of partnerships. We identify products, services and companies that have some affinity to Papa John’s.
PROMO: How do you drive customers to the site?
ENSIGN: A very important strategy for us is to present an offer to consumers that is perceived as a great trial offer. In almost every single case, we have some sort of offer — some high-value, low-risk item. We give them an incentive to try something. There is no single silver bullet. Pizza is universal, but media habits are not. We try to be relevant and be in the places where people are and provide offers based off of their lifestyles.
PROMO: Why do entertainment and sports work so well as hooks for PapaJohns.com?
ENSIGN: Both are relatively universal. The nice thing is you can do different partnerships so you can appeal to a lot of different groups. Pizza and video entertainment and pizza and sports viewing go hand-in-hand. Pizza is all really just about fun.
PROMO: What are your biggest challenges?
ENSIGN: One is a much smaller advertising budget than the competition. We put more money into products and services. It’s a challenge for us as marketers to get the word out. Another is making sure people understand and know about online ordering. Some people are just not aware of it. It’s also hard to choose what to communicate. We have so many different things. How do we get all of the messages out there? We are trying to get smarter about that.
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