March Madness has kicked off, and with it comes a frenzy of excitement as basketball fans turn their eyes to the first few games in Dayton, Ohio.
It's the perfect season for parties as frost melts off the ground, you can finally ditch your sweaters for t-shirts again, and life just feels a whole lot better on the whole. Before you know it, you'll have a houseful of friends yelling at the TV in joy, fury, or a mix of both. It's no wonder people look forward to it every year.
Fast food retailers also anticipate this time, as they're aware that many basketball fans will have friends over these next few weeks. That's a lot of mouths to feed, and when it comes to that situation, there really is no better food than pizza.
You could order a stack of extra large deep dish from your local pizzeria to feed the fam. Or, you could turn your attention to Pizza Hut (YUM), as its already come up with a fine solution for your problem that it calls "the official pizza of March Madness."
Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut's Big Dinner Boxes are a Smart Move
The Hut has a special deal going for March Madness in the form of what it called Big Dinner Boxes, better known as a giant pile of food designed to feed at least four people (or, as it promises on its official website, it won't judge if you order it to feed just you).
Rather than just a pizza, this feast comes with two medium one-topping pizzas, five breadsticks, and your pick of either chicken wings or pasta on the side. If you prefer to forsake the sides, though, you can just swap them out for a third medium pizza in the box.
Since Pizza Hut is franchise-owned, the cost of the Big Dinner Box may vary, but some are reporting that it's $19.99 in their locations, while other report it at $25. It's a plentiful quantity of food either way.
Can Domino's Compete For the March Madness Audience?
Pizza Hut has a deal with the NCAA for years to be advertised as "The Official Pizza of March Madness," so the chain has a big advantage over other pizza chains. But there's no similar offering from either Domino's (DPZ) or Papa John's (PZZA) to compete. This seems like a major missed opportunity for both, although Domino's and Pizza Hut run a much narrower race for their customers' attention (Domino's has 1.4 million Twitter followers, for instance, compared to Pizza Hut's 1.6 million).
Domino's has already proven it's capable of doing over the top food packages to wow its customers: Take the Best 34 Toppings pizza, a Japanese special that basically crammed every item you can choose onto a single pie.
Does that sounds kinda disgusting? Yes! But the point is that Domino's is willing to take risks, and it's not doing that in this situation. Perhaps the chain doesn't feel it needs to, as it roundly outsold all its competitors in 2020. But if my friends say they want pizza while we watch the Final Four, I know where my order's going.
