That makes sense. As Chipotle steals the limelight with its messaging about high quality and non-GMO offerings — and traditional fast food sales continue to plummet — fresh is definitely what’s selling these days.

“We are finding ways to more effectively communicate our commitment to using the best quality ingredients,” CEO and company founder John Schnatter said during a recent earnings call. “That has always been part of what distinguishes Papa John’s from the rest.”

“In recent months, the company has added garlic knots and cinnamon knots to its menu, as well as limited time offers like a Greek pizza and Philly cheesesteak. It also added lighter pizzas with fewer calories,” notes Nation’s Restaurant News (NRN).

Papa John’s customers like what they’re seeing, hearing, and eating. Same-store sales in the second quarter were up 5.5 percent in North America, the 19th straight quarter of domestic same-store sales growth.

Where’s the top line growth? Digital.

“The top-line growth is coming amid a continued shift in customers using digital ordering. More than half of the orders at Papa John’s now come through digital orders, and half of those digital orders are now coming through mobile technology,” reports NRN.

The company is also analyzing improvements to its loyalty program, Papa John’s Rewards, launched in 2010.

“If you don’t evolve every aspect of your business, it’s not long before you’re in trouble,” Schnatter said.

The company has added 71 locations worldwide so far this year, most of them in international markets. Currently, 1,388 of the chain’s 4,734 locations are outside of North America.

“We’re going to grow our international side of our business through our tried and true principles,” Schnatter said. “The best people, the best ingredients, the best pizza, period.”

The post Papa John’s Mobile Orders Grow, Company Emphasizing Quality of Pizza appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

So the world’s leading take ‘n’ bake pizza franchise may not be delivering pies just yet, but they are delivering cutting edge mobile marketing.

“Waterfall is the only mobile marketing solution to offer the intricate level of database platform capabilities with user levels and permissions for multi-unit franchise owners,” said Jayson Tipp, vice president of strategy, technology and marketing at Papa Murphy’s.

“Consistent, personalized messaging is critical for Papa Murphy’s and mobile messaging has already proven itself as a key revenue driver,” Tipp adds. “With Waterfall’s solutions, we can balance our national and franchise owner needs in a seamless fashion.”

According to a provided statement, Papa Murphy’s in-store promotions, supplemented with text alerts and calls to action — that offer coupons and other incentives — are driving more in-store sales and web traffic.

The post Pizza Giant Finally Delivers… Mobile Marketing appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Consequently, it comes as a surprise to some that the pizza giant doesn’t seen to think that Apple’s new mobile payments platform will deliver.

“I am more pessimistic about Apple Pay’s impact than most people here,” Danny Sullivan, Pizza Hut’s VP of global digital experience, recently said according to Pymnts.com.

Sullivan’s outlook is bleak for a number of reasons, including the fact that there’s no ecommerce option and Android users (of whom there are many) are naturally excluded.

He reminded the audience that American consumers have no core problem with using rectangular plastic cards to pay for products in-store—magstripe devices that have worked quite well for decades—so much persuasion will be needed for any in-store mobile payment to gain serious traffic, momentum and marketshare.

“I still don’t think the use case has been made,” Sullivan concludes.

Do you agree or disagree with Sullivan’s assessment? Please weigh in with your two cents below.

The post Pizza Hut Taking a Pass on Apple Pay? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

So far, they are seeing over half off all traffic to Beat the Leader coming from smartphones and mobile devices.

Not just that, but mobile availability has drastically increased participation in all off their 90+ restaurants. They have well over 1,000 regular participants this year, with approximately 6,000 coming from mobile devices.

As one of the added draws of taking their popular game mobile, mobile allows for a larger range of ways in which customers can engage with and challenge other players from around the nation. Shrewdly, Old Chicago even implemented some great digital rewards for players.

Old Chicago partnered with Movement Strategy to create their new digital game, which is proving to be an overwhelming success.

“With the improvements to the mobile experience we’re aiming for a 90 percent retention rate week over week – meaning users are returning to make picks and view leaderboards,” Eric Dieter, co-founder of Movement Strategy tells Mobile Commerce Daily. “In 2013 this was just over 70 percent.”

The post Old Chicago Takes Their Football Challenge Mobile appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

But before you go looking for a Bitcoin payment option from Pizza Hut, it’s important to know what this day – and, yes, Bitcoin Pizza Day isn’t without basis – is all about.

“Four years ago this week, on May 22, 2010, a BTC fan and programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz offered 10,000 Bitcoins – about $40 at that time – for two Papa John’s pizzas,” TechCrunch explains, citing the message written by Hanyecz at the time:

I’ll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas… like maybe 2 large ones so I have some left over for the next day. I like having left over pizza to nibble on later. You can make the pizza yourself and bring it to my house or order it for me from a delivery place, but what I’m aiming for is getting food delivered in exchange for bitcoins where I don’t have to order or prepare it myself, kind of like ordering a ‘breakfast platter’ at a hotel or something, they just bring you something to eat and you’re happy! If you’re interested please let me know and we can work out a deal…

If you’re not familiar with the story, here’s what went on to happen.

As the legend has it, a volunteer in the UK subsequently ordered the pizzas and had them delivered to Hanyecz. According to TechCrunch, this kickstarted the trade of Bitcoin for pizza.

Today, Bitcoin is a surging digital currency that, some experts predict, will one day dominate all forms of eCommerce.

And it all started with pizza.

The post Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day! appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

ZinMobi – a so-called specialist in marketing software for pizza chains – is setting up shop in North America.

ZinMobi’s platform has enjoyed rapid success in response to its ability to targets customers according to their purchase behavior.

Its mobile marketing and messaging platform uses purchase behavior analytics and algorithms to create customer profiles which are then used to trigger customer purchases via targeted, timely and relevant messages, and coupons.

“Some of America and Canada’s best loved pizza chains are family-run businesses that simply don’t have the time to focus on complex technology or mining ‘big data’. We do all the heavy lifting for them so they can automate their marketing campaigns,” CEO Brian Stephenson is quoted in the report. “Our technology is designed to address the most common marketing needs and challenges. Whether it’s delivering instant sales, protecting margins, increasing purchase frequency, building loyalty and lifetime value or reducing churn, cutting campaign costs, minimizing administration and increasing brand consistency — our platform does it all, at both a national and hyper-local level.”

Before setting its sights on North America, ZinMobi cut its teeth by providing mobile marketing software for various pizza establishments across its native Ireland.

The post Mobile Marketing Provider for Pizza Chains Comes to North America appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

It also delivered a victory to food – tasty, delicious, and anything but healthy food, much of which was ordered by a mobile phone and delivered in time for the big game.

As MMW reported earlier Monday, mobile devices and corresponding social media platforms were very popular during the game, with Twitter generating more than 12,000 tweets per second during the final three minutes of the Super Bowl.

But mCommerce was also a huge success, estimates independent business analyst Mike Randazzo.

On Monday, Randazzo told Mobile Marketing Watch that the national pizza chains could report some interesting number in the days ahead.

“I would venture to guess that pizza chains saw a record number of orders placed online and via mobile devices,” he says, “possibily to a mind-blowing, record-shattering degree.”

“People were plugged into their mobile devices like never before on a day that, historically, tends to be very strong for pizza sales,” Randazzo concludes.

“This was the first year that the Super Bowl was live streamed, and there was a significant spike in searches related to Super Bowl live streaming on game day,” the Google Blog reads today. “Searches peaked at kickoff, and were made predominantly on desktop, followed by mobile phones and then tablets.”

Did you use your mobile phone to order food during yesterday’s Super Bowl? If so, please leave a comment – or some leftovers – below.

The post Did Mobile Commerce Log a New Record for Pizza Orders on Super Bowl Sunday? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

At Wednesday’s OMMA Mobile Conference, Jim McDonnell, marketing manager, emerging channels for Papa John’s International, spoke of the disappointing results experienced by the launch of a Papa Johns branded iPhone app.

After being bombarded by companies saying how effective and useful iPhone apps can be for marketing, Papa Johns launched an app that allows users to find local outlets and a shortcut to connect directly to the main mobile site ordering screen.  After a short period to test the waters, the outcome was deemed unacceptable by the company. “So far, we haven’t seen anything that really delivers for us as well as mobile display advertising,” McDonnell explained.  He pointed out that smartphones, and the iPhone in particular, have been big factors in driving its mobile business.  Smartphones account for nearly all traffic to its mobile site, and the iPhone alone about half.

“My motto is that people who spend money (to buy) smartphones are the people who are spending on phones,” he said.  He explained that the lack of business being driven from its iPhone app has diminished the company’s enthusiasm for launching apps in other app storefronts being opened by Apple competitors including BlackBerry, Palm, Microsoft and others.

While not all news surrounding iPhone apps is positive, I have to believe the way Papa Johns went about it was probably a little off base.  Apps for other pizza companies have, for the most part, proved very successful, so why would this be any different.  It could have something to do with the feature-set offered in the App, or its overall user-interface, but I definitely don’t think they should stop after one try.

The post Papa Johns Not Happy With Its iPhone App appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.