Pizza chain Peter Piper is rolling out a pilot program to several of its Texas locations that is not only aimed at increasing foot traffic, but also to help the company begin its SMS efforts.

With the pilot program, Peter Piper will geofence the area around several locations to trigger location-based ads to be served in mobile applications. Peter Piper worked with Single Touch Systems and agency Santy Integrated on this campaign.

“Our primary target is millennial moms, and as you know, they’re heavy users of their mobile phones,” said Dan Santy, president/CEO of Santy Integrated, Scottsdale, AZ.

“As the brand expands into several Texas markets, mobile is an efficient channel that also allows us to drive traffic in different day parts,” he said.

Peter Piper Pizza includes 139 company and franchise locations in the Southwest United States and in Mexico.

Mobile deals
Peter Piper is using Single Touch’s FollowMe service to send out targeted ads to consumers who are near the restaurants.

In-app banner ads will drive consumers to specific offers.

Two offers are being used in the pilot to drive in-store traffic around lunch and dinner time.

The first one is for a free drink with a lunch buffet, and the second is a large one-topping pizza for dinner.

Location is everything when it comes to how quick-serve restaurants are using mobile advertising.

In this case, the pizza chain is smart to geo-fence its locations around specific times of the day, which can help the company learn which types of offers interest consumers the most.

Building a program
The location-based mobile ads are also tied to a component that asks consumers to type in their mobile phone number into a box to receive future promotions from the pizza chain. Peter Piper is using this to collect mobile phone numbers and create an SMS database.

Peter Piper does not currently have an SMS program, so the new mobile ads serve as the primary manner in which the chain is looking to build a longer-term relationship with its consumers.

One of the challenges for marketers in mobile advertising centers around how to turn a consumer who clicks on an ad into a loyal customer.

Therefore, collecting mobile phone numbers is an effective way for the brand to leverage mobile advertising while creating a database of opted-in users.

“Location-based advertising is critical to all restaurant chains – moms are hungry for value, convenience and quality,” Mr. Santy said.

“This channel allows us to get them connected to the closest location and quickly provide them with directions or a click-to-call into a to-go order,” he said.

“In many respects, this brings local-store marketing to life in the digital arena.”

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York