The phone has always been an important sales tool for pizza chains.
But "The Hut" wants your fingers to do the talking - and buying - via a new iPhone app, the first of its kind for a pizza chain.
It's interesting because Pizza Hut has been aggressive in the mobile space for some time. It's early "Pizza Cast" text-messaging m-commerce project was well ahead of its competitors. It was also ahead of its time, as people just weren't as comfortable setting up short codes to instantly order their favorite meals.
But the iPhone app - fittingly, if predictably called "iHut" - could catch the wave, instead. The visual interface makes it easy to order up food. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, so I'm not sure if you set up an account with your credit card number to order pizza on the fly but I assume that's the case.
There's even a pizza deliver game to help keep the brand top of mind.
The Hut is definitely onto something. It's on track to make $1 billion in online sales by 2012, and efforts like its Facebook app have been well received by 1 million unique users. AD AGE reports the company even has its own Twintern, who devotes his or her time to Twittering about Pizza Hut.
Frankly, given Domino's even has ordering through your TiVo, I'm a litte suprised it took so long for a pizza maker to get into the iPhone app space.
Time will tell how it pays off. But as an observer who has watched the progression here, from Pizzacast to the iPhone, it's exciting to see "The Hut" evolve with the times.
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