In a RetailWire poll last April, we asked how effective Pizza Hut's Xbox app would be in helping the chain connect with gamers, primarily young males. The Xbox app gives gamers the ability to place an order for pizza using their game controller, a Kinect gesture or even their voice. It appears that the majority of the poll respondents were correct: 86 percent thought the app would be effective.
According to a recent report on Polygon, Pizza Hut sold $1 million through the Xbox app in its first four months. Interestingly, 11 percent who placed an order used the app to make their very first online buy with the pizza chain.
"It's been a source of unbelievable growth for us," Doug Terfehr, director of public relations for Pizza Hut, told Polygon. "Just the explosion of people who wanted to download it, experiment with it, play with it with Kinect. As soon as we did one, everyone was contacting us to do the next [one]."
