Pizza Hut iPhone App Reaches $1 Million in Sales
Customers find value and convenience in new pizza ordering App.
-- Chain Leader, 10/28/2009 9:26:00 PM
PRESS RELEASE: DALLAS, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- After being live in the iTunes App Store for just three months, the Pizza Hut App for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch has garnered more than one million dollars in sales. As the featured icon in the iTunes Lifestyle Category, the App is a proven option for customers seeking an innovative way to order their pizza, pasta, and wings from Pizza Hut.
"We are very excited to see our customers respond so positively to our Pizza Hut App," said Brian Niccol, Pizza Hut CMO. "Reaching one million dollars in sales with the App emphasizes the value of ordering innovation to our customers and how important it is for Pizza Hut to continue to create successful new ways to engage with them."
Pizza Hut is the first national pizza chain to introduce an ordering App for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch, and is quickly approaching one million downloads. A leader in App design, this year, the Pizza Hut App was the winner of an OMMA award, and a finalist for one MOBI award and two MMA awards.
The Pizza Hut App is a convenient and entertaining way to order from Pizza Hut. It uses innovative iPhone and iPod touch features including the Multi-touch user interface and accelerometer to make ordering each individual menu item a fun and customized experience:
* When ordering pizzas, users virtually build their own pizza by choosing a type of crust in the scroll wheel, "pinching" to select size, and dragging-and-dropping toppings onto the pizza, all with visual confirmation. If an overeager pizza customer adds too many toppings, the pizza explodes and toppings go flying across the screen with an alert to make their pizza happier with fewer toppings.
* The section used to order WingStreet(R) wings starts with a bowl of wings that changes as users choose the type of wings they want. Next they select a sauce and are prompted to "sauce their wings" by shaking their iPhone or iPod touch until the wings are covered. Shake too long and the sauce flies across the screen. As with the pizza ordering, customers finish with a representation of the wings order.
* The App has a virtual waiter on call to take your Tuscani Pastas order. You can select from four delicious varieties including Meaty Marinara, Creamy Chicken Alfredo, Premium Bacon Mac 'N Cheese and Lasagna.
Pizza Hut also has given consumers a way to pass the time as they wait for their order with a game called Pizza Hut Racer, in which users are challenged to deliver a pizza quickly while avoiding obstacles in the road. The pizza delivery car speeds up or slows down depending upon the angle of the device, and vibrations and beeps alert users when the driver hits the curb or runs into obstacles. Each time a user orders using the App they get 20% off their entire order.
The Pizza Hut App is available from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore, and a video demoing the application's features and functionality can be found at pizzahut.com/iphone. For more information on Pizza Hut, log on to pizzahut.com or interact with Pizza Hut at facebook.com/pizzahut and twitter.com/pizzahut.
About Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut, America's Favorite Pizza, delivers more pizza, pasta and wings than any other restaurant. The only pizza company to be named a top ten franchise in 2009 by Entrepreneur Magazine, Pizza Hut began 50 years ago in Wichita, Kansas and today operates more than 10,000 restaurants in more than 90 countries. Pizza Hut, Inc. is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM). To check out what's new at Pizza Hut visit pizzahut.com.
