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Papa John's Pizza Houston gets a request for coupon from 52% of Twitter "conversations"

Consumer Intent Software Social Compass is promising for digital marketers

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Platform: SocialCompass, by HipLogiq

Campaign: 'Half Off Online Pizza Order'

Advertiser:  Papa John's

Account Executive: Macy English/Jason Dove - VP Sales, HipLogiq

Market: Houston

Challenge: Papa John's wanted to target pizza lovers with coupons in real time, when they wanted their pizza. 

The "just in time" aspect of using Twitter  to find customers appealed to Billy Robinett, Director of Communications, Papa John's.

"There is no way to mass market to just the right customer at just the time they are about to order pizza. "

Strategy:  Papa John's selected HipLogiq's new Twitter-based app, Social Compass, to  "listen in" on conversations about pizza, and reply with a discount (see a full review of the platform here). 

"SocialCompass let us talk to our customer one-on-one instead of one in a million," Robinett said. 

The system uses a proprietary algorythm, code-named 'Joshua', to identify the best search terms for surfacing relevant conversations. Hiplogiq's account manager researched what kind of conversations were happening around “craving pizza” or “wanting pizza." 

"We... found there were thousands of conversations happening around the topic of pizza in a month's time, so we knew it was going to be a great opportunity."

They selected a group of search terms they felt would surface 250 - 500 conversations per month mentioning pizza during the one year when the campaign ran. 

Word combinations included:

Bacon pizza

BBQ chicken pizza
cheese pizza
cheese sticks
cinnamon pizza
cinnapple
craving a pizza 
craving breadsticks
craving buffalo wings 
craving papa john's
craving papa johns
craving pizza
craving wings
dessert pizza
grab a pizza
hate pizza hut
hawaiian pizza
love pizza
need pizza
need something sweet
order a pizza
order papa johns
order pizza
order some wings
ordering pizza
out for pizza
poppa john's 
poppa johns
pepperoni pizza
pizza delivery
pizza dipping sauce
pizza hut
pizza party
pizza sauce
vegetarian pizza
want breadsticks
want buffalo winges
want pepperoni
want pizza
wanat some pizza
want wings
Here's a sample of pizza-related dialogue on Twitter:

Once the searches were created and conversation surfaced, SocialCompass replied manually with an offer. 

For example, when @channa0209 Tweeted, "I want pizza :( Been Craving it for the longest time" then Papa John's Houston (@PapaJohnsHoustx) replied "We're here to help, Channa! Order online with this offer and save 50% off your total" with a link to a coupon that had email capture on it.

Once Sandra's email is filled in, she recieves a 50% off coupon in her email box.

A second email prompts for the referral: "Hey Sandra, refer your friends for dollars off" and gives a second link. So when Sandra Tweets, "hey friends, want pizza? you're welcome" and a link to the discount, she recieves  another email, "Your friend redeemed the offer, here's your Papa John's cash." 

The whole process is diagramed here: 

Results were impressive:  52% conversions from coupons sent via Twitter. That equates to a potential of 125 to 250 online orders for pizza a month in Houston (redemptions are not tracked by the system, only discounts sent), with a great email list of pizza-lovers as a bonus. Papa John's plans to expand the campaign into other markets.

Our take: We see that intent based marketing such as this campaign has a great future. It is easier to measure and can be optimized (you see which conversations get the most results). Social Compass as a platform is still in its early stages, but we think upgrades on the road map for early 2014 (see review here) will make this company a winner. Unlike promoted Tweets, these offers are part of the conversation. We also like the margins for media resellers. While this campaign was managed by HipLogiq's team, agency resellers typically charge for campaign management; a campaign is $199 a month to run on the platform, however responding on behalf of merchants can generate $1200 to $5000 a month, depending on the size and ROI of the merchant, but require only about one minute per response. For top categories, please see the review. 

hiplogiq, papa john's, social compass, twitter, intent-based marketing