September 5, 2013
College students in Madison, Wisconsin learn three important facts without dropping a dime on tuition. 1) Pizza is one of the essential food groups. 2) Stickers are an essential part of a successful marketing campaign. 3) Mac and Cheese Pizza? It's a thing and Ian's Pizza is the place to get it.
Ian's uses sticker marketing to spread their deliciously cheesey gospel. They print up 10,000 stickers at a time and keep a big bowl of free stickers on the counter. “It’s a huge branding tool for us,” Ian’s marketing director Adam May explains. “When someone takes 15 stickers and sticks them on 15 different people and it grows from there, it’s like going viral online.”
Whether those stickers end up on a bumper, a backpack, or the back pocket of a pair of jeans is anyone's guess. Sticker marketing is random, organic, and truly social.
“The best thing that could happen for us is when you’re out on a Friday night not thinking about Ian’s at all, and someone walks by with a sticker on his back and you think, ‘I need to go to Ian’s. That’s where the party’s at. I need to get a slice and a sticker.’ ”
Want to sample a slice of Ian's Mac and Cheese? You gotta get on the bus to Madison ...