Domino’s aims to eat in to Netflix with its own VOD offering

When is a fast-food company also a streaming film outlet? When it offers customers both at the same time online.

In the UK, Domino’s has launched what it’s calling Pizza Box Office, an initiative giving online pizza orderers their choice of complementary movie streamed to PC, Mac or tablet (release).

The initiative is designed to incentivise ecommerce orders and illustrates how digital movies, like music tracks before them, can now be used as the auxiliary content of wider marketing campaigns.

If pizzas and movies really do go hand in hand, as Domino’s wants to suggest, this marriage could snag one-time buyers who don’t necessarily need to subscribe to a monthly service.

But pizza eaters shouldn’t expect a Netflix-beating selection of titles. Domino’s has only secured repertoire from one studio – Lionsgate UK. And Pizza Box Office is not yet streaming to TVs, on which most pizza eaters will prefer watching their flick.

This year, online began accounting for the majority (58.4 percent) of Domino’s UK orders. In the year to September, ecommerce sales rose 42 percent to £184.9 million ($297 million) (release). That was thanks to a 46.9 percent rise in mobile internet orders, which now make up 18.5 percent of online sales.