Domino’s is a legacy pizza brand with a long history of delivering delicious pizza and delicious content. The challenge they face now is to get in good with Gen Z – the pizza-eaters of tomorrow. This audience may be fleetingly familiar with Domino’s, but as the most phone-first, TV-second people on earth, we can’t count on traditional advertising methods to make a lasting impact on them. So with a target audience of chronically online culture drivers and trend setters, we outlined our goal: to make Domino’s the most loved pizza brand on social, and one of the most loved QSRs on social.
To build brand love on social and reach one audience in particular, our overarching goal was to connect with Gen Z without alienating other generations. So, we wrap approachable content for all our fans in zoomer bacon: memes, unhinged lo-fi video, and all-vibes-no-punctuation copy.
Gen Z is the nucleus of internet culture, so our concepts are driven by zoomer sensibilities as well. Instagram, TikTok, and Threads became our primary channels to yap with the youths, while Twitter and Facebook house a legacy fan community. Platform-specific content gives each space its own reason to be followed (and loved!). We started flirting on Threads, getting surreal on TikTok, and building up Instagram as our brand HQ with a mix of shareable absurdity and the mouthwatering food porn. On Twitter and Facebook, we stir the pot intentionally to get spirited conversations going.
Our evergreen messaging focuses on engaging content that speaks to audience truths, like a medical dependence on the Domino’s Tracker, and builds lore around fan favorite products like lava cakes. In real time, we capitalize most on conversations we can co-star in. With the summer Olympics going viral for their cardboard beds, we gave them a wink and a nod. And when influencers like The Dad Chats shout us out organically, we respond enthusiastically. More than anything, we aim to set trends with original formats like Clock Man, leading the meme charge instead of following it.
Our first social-focused campaign launched Domino’s 5-Cheese Mac & Cheese to the world via loveable, cheese-for-brains Mac The Mac-Scot. The 7-foot tall existential penne noodle highlighted the best parts of a mac-less mac & cheese in a workplace comedy setting. Leaning into absurd humor and the Gen Z penchant for quiet-quitting personality hires was a smash, gaining us 10,000 followers in a single day.
In both evergreen and campaign work, our influencer and brand partner choices are driven not just by a desire to connect with Gen Z, but to show up in delightfully unexpected ways. Our collabs with Gabby Windey, Scrub Daddy, and The Empire State Building have all gotten double takes that ultimately lead to “You know what? Yeah. Hell yeah.”
With a target audience that innovates and drives culture, it’s most important for us to be their fans as well. They write the brief on our feeds and in our comments; it’s our job to read it.
We slayed it. And we can say that, because we speak fluent zoomer now. With many milestones along the way, Domino’s has pushed toward its goal of being one of the most-loved pizza brands on social.
Numbers wise, Domino’s social media audience has grown by 52.2% year over year, with an overall engagement rate increase of 65.7% for 2024. On TikTok, our impressions are up by 137%, and shares are up by 59.8%. On Instagram, organic impressions are up by 53%, and shares have increased by 159%.
We clearly love good numbers, and everyone wants to go viral – which we also did. “Clock Man” on TikTok hit an engagement rate of 22.3%, which looks pretty nice compared to the platform average of 3.3%. On Instagram, our Domino’s Tracker meme reached an engagement rate of 9.7%, handily outperforming the platform average of .5% according to SocialInsider. The highest form of flattery, though? Being reposted by a meme account–akin to a social media Oscar.
With growth across social platforms and comments sections popping off, the likes to shares to most loved pizza brand on social pipeline is going strong.
