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I am one of three finalists in a Papa John’s “Create your own Specialty Pizza” contest, and to the point where I have to develop and execute a marketing strategy – nationwide – to sell as many of my pizzas (The Big Bonanza) in August as possible, beating the other two finalists.

Papa John’s (PJ) is making and offering all three on their menu August 2-29, and while I have what I think is a strong approach for such a quick turnaround promo period, I do not have much experience with website management software. I happen to be a marketer, which is what drew me to the competition, but we’re basically asked to do this with $1,000 that they’re giving us (I have to pay taxes on it, so I’m already down to $700) and I am hoping to get smart professionals on my side who what to help for the social media experience of this experiment. I think if I set if up right, the results of this will provide marketers with a great snapshot of what works/didn’t work in turning social media “fans” into paying customers. I’m at no shortage for ideas on what to do once the site is up (celebrity endorsements, mock beer/wine pairings with my pizza, challenges for free PJ gift cards, etc), but REALLY NEED YOU HELP ON THE TECHNICAL SIDE OF DEVELOPING MY SITE AND ONLINE TOOLS. That said, here is my approach and my questions for you, my brilliant sounding board:

Plan: Find a web development tool (free or nearly free) that will allow me to create and customize a social website that a dummy (me) can manage. On this site, I’d like for visitors to be able to upload their own videos of them eating my pizza, talking about it, etc, comment on posts, vote for fave videos, and forward posts to their friends via email, FB or Twitter. I’d also like the site to prompt people to sign up for email alerts throughout the contest and link to PJ’s online locator of PJ stores and online ordering system. Secondly, I’d like to set up a texting option for people to text “pizza” to 12345 for periodic updates throughout the contest.

Questions:

1) Will Buddypress work for me in delivering what I want to do, how I want to customize it, and be easy for me to use? (To qualify: I am familiar with wordpress as I use it for my company’s blog).

2) Will buddypress give me a way to manage the email addresses I’m hoping to collect? Will they let me do this through my thebigbonanza @gmail.com account that I’m currently promoting in local press?

3) With the whole texting campaign- where do I go/how do i get a 5-6 digit # to promote as the # to send their text to? Will i get a database of these peoples’ #s to send out in mass when I send out my updates? Does anyone know how i can do this on the cheap?

4) Who wants to help? I am in it to win it with this contest, and because my company is supporting me, I am approaching this as an experiment that I’d like to turn into a case study once I win (fingers crossed). I am adding a “Partners” page to my website to recognize those people and companies whose expertise contributed to my win, and whose skills I plan on promoting nationwide with the buzz of my win and methods used. Papa John’s is doing an outstanding job promoting this contest in mainstream and social media, and coupling the results of their contest with the tools I used to win will hopefully help marketers better understand what elements work/don’t when it comes to transitioning online ‘fans’ into customers. Again – whose in? I can’t pay for services, but WILL send you some pizzas once I win!

Sincerely, THANK YOU to anyone who read all of this and replies with insight and recommendations. I am very grateful.

Best Regards,
Blair Dial
thebigbonanza @gmail.com