Domino's breaks new ground selling user-designed pizzas

The role user-generated content has played thus far in the restaurant world has tended to be in the form of restaurant reviews on sites like Yelp. But Domino's in Australia is changing that: its fans decide what goes on the menu. The company's Pizza Mogul app allows customers to design pizzas to their own personal specs, and the company has been crowdsourcing its menu from the home-designed pies. The initiative, part of what Domino's Group CEO Don Meij referred to in a statement as the company's "People Powered Pizza ethos" has been a proven success and a huge sales driver.

The Pizza Mogul app, which launched last July, allows users to customize a pizza by choosing from a drag-and-drop list of ingredients. Users are then encouraged to advertise their creations on social media outlets so that other people can purchase them.

Perhaps the most daring thing about Domino's new crowd-sourced model is that the people who design pizzas through the Pizza Mogul app receive a percentage of the sales of the pizzas they design.

According to an article in CMO, users are paid between $0.25 and $4.50 every time someone buys one of their customized pizzas.

The Wall Street Journal reports that 55,000 people have signed up for the Pizza Mogul app since its launch, and users have added a total of 160,000 pizzas to the menu. The article further reports that Domino's net profits rose 67 percent for the six months through December, to $29.1 million A.U. ($22.6 million U.S.).

Domino's may be leading the way with this approach among restaurants, but it is not the only company that is giving customers a shot at designing products. According to a TechCrunch article, an online Lego set sharing platform called Pley recently rolled out a crowdsourced Lego set creation platform called Pleyworld. The site allows users to post images of Lego figures they have created to be voted on. If a creation reaches 5,000 votes, Pley produces a set based on the design, which is then made available to rent or buy. Users do not receive any payment if their submitted idea is turned into a set.

On the higher-end side of the spectrum, Detroit-based Canvas Watch Co. makes wristwatches based on user-submitted designs. The Canvas Watch Co. website indicates that watches are voted on by the community, and when a watch is selected, it is created in a limited-edition batch of 250.

• Crowdsourcing Helps Domino's Pizza Serve Up Rise in Profit - The Wall Street Journal (sub. required)
• Pizza Mogul co-creation campaign drives Domino's sales - CMO
• 'Netflix For Lego' Pley Launches A Kit Crowdsourcing Platform And Raises $10M - TechCrunch
• Canvas Watch Blog - Canvas Watch Co.
• Canvas Watch Co: How It Works - Canvas Watch Co.