Domino’s Pizza has created the holy grail of buzz with their new ad campaign. In the spots they basically own up to the fact that their pizza well…sort of sucked. So they’ve changed everything, the sauce, the crust, the cheese and they are offering a whale of a deal to get the masses to try them again. It’s always refreshing when corporate America tells the truth and Dominos does a pretty good job of sharing what they heard and how it made them feel demonstrating the impetus behind the revamped product.

Their TV spots are backed up by a 4-minute documentary, “The Pizza Turnaround” which has over 311,712 views so far on You Tube, Tweets and direct mail. It’s a near perfect execution of multi channel messaging targeting every age demographic.  The proof is in the pizza, so to speak, with anecdotal comments from some franchisees claiming an 85% increase in volume since the campaign started. I haven’t tried the pizza yet but have the direct mail piece safely tucked in my purse, awaiting the moment I throw in the towel on this year’s resolution to make dinner every night. The pizza better be better. My expectation isn’t that it will be the best pizza I’ve ever eaten. That distinction is still held by a joint near my Alma Mater, Villanova University, whose name escapes me now. Domino’s just needs to be markedly better and hopefully win in the head to head battle with the current household delivery favorite, Papa John’s.

So here’s the real message: Domino’s agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, hit a home run, and people are giving Domino’s another try. But in the end, the product has to speak for itself or the marketing strategy ends up delivering only a momentary hit in volume. The franchisees will take that one on the chin because they are the ones honoring the current deal of $5.99 a piece for two medium two topping pizzas which would normally sell for $22.95 according to their website (ouch!).

Marketing lets people know what you have and why you’re special.  If it isn’t true, it’ll catch up to you. Your job, whether you are a pizza place, a bank, a printer or a college, is to build a product that’s remarkable in some way. Then it’s our job to make sure the right people know what you have and why it’s special.

And when it comes together it’s beautiful.