Winning board game of Domino’s

The 1994 Institute of Sales Promotion award-winning sampling campaign for Domino’s Pizza with MB Games’s Scattergories showed how games can be used creatively and effectively.

Scattergories is an adult board game for two to six players. The object of the game is to find unique answers for categories, determined by the letters rolled on the dice, within an allocated time.

The campaign ran from November to December last year, sampling 500,000 households nationwide, through Domino’s 95 outlets. It offered a sample, “bite-size edition” of Scattergories with every Domino’s Pizza home-delivery order, with a further 5 cash-back voucher as an incentive to purchase the main game. Domino’s store managers were also motivated with a full version of the game.

James Bennett, product manager for MB Games says: “Scattergories had been on the market for three years, prior to this campaign, achieving fairly small volumes.” He adds that sales to the trade grew threefold as a result of the promotion, making it the fastest-growing game in the company’s portfolio.

“The campaign gave MB Games a chance to access people in their own homes rather than through direct mail, which is liable to end up in the bin,” says Bennett. “It was a cost-effective distribution method, that enabled us to target people when they are eating, which is generally a time when we see our games being used. However, we did spend a lot of money on Scattergories last year, with a considerable amount of investment above the line through television and radio advertising.”

According to Bennett, MB Games plans to continue the partnership with Domino’s Pizza. Another campaign is planned for later this year. The upcoming promotion will offer a “Domino’s Pizza Party Pack”, containing a selection of sample games, balloons and party hats.

Michael C De Domenici