Arshad Warsi gets a double role in Domino’s TVC

Much like his predecessor Paresh Rawal, the new Domino’s brand ambassador, Arshad Warsi, will play a double act in the pizza chain’s new TVC, which will be launched this week. The TVC is intended to introduce Domino’s new range of Chinese pizzas and, accordingly, Warsi will play a Chinese and an Indian in the new TVC.

The company has allotted a marketing budget of Rs 6 crore for the new pizza range; the initiative will comprise TV advertising, below-the-line activities and local store marketing initiatives.

Incidentally, another player in the pizza segment, Pizza Hut, is now celebrating its World Food Fest, offering a mix of Italian, Mexican, Chinese and American dishes, but not all of these are pizzas. However, Amritesh insists that the Chinese pizza range is not a reaction to the competitor’s move.

He adds, “For Domino’s, the main growth comes from pizzas, which is almost 70 per cent of its business, but the company is also looking at other categories.”

At present, the Indian pizza segment is worth Rs 500 crore. In 2006, Domino’s Pizza had a market share of 40 per cent. It plans to increase the number of its outlets with the intention of taking this up to at least 45 per cent by the year end. At present, it has 150 outlets across the country; this number will go up to 200 by the end of 2007.