Pi Day interest grows and marketers respond

Dive Brief:

Numerous brands have Pi Day promotions this year, including Domino’s, Blaze, Pieology, Boston Market, Whole Foods Market, and pizza chain &pizza, which is hosting free weddings, according to reporting by USA Today that lists offers from 38 businesses for the event. March 14 is Pi Day, the annual celebration of the mathematical constant that’s the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi, a trillion-digit ratio, is rounded to 3.14.
Brands are responding to growing interest in the celebration of Pi. Online searches surrounding “National Pi Day” reached a peak in 2017 with 49,500 in March of last year alone, an 18% year-over-year increase, according to data from digital marketing agency iQuanti provided to Marketing Dive. Overall, searches increased up to 33% year-over-year.
Pizza chain Pieology was one of the first brands to offer pi-related promotions, and in March 2017, there were 33,100 online searches for “Pieology Pi day,” a 93% increase from 2016. Other pizza chains, including Domino’s and Blaze Pizza, have seen increases in searches around Pi Day. Domino’s had a 45% increase, and Blaze searches increased 44% year-over-year.

Dive Insight:

As “Pi Day” becomes more popular, consumers are starting to seek out promotions, as online searches for “Pi Day deals” have also grown, the iQuanti data show. Searches for “pi” increased 69% from February to March 2017, and searches for “Pi Day” increased 96%. Marketers should look for creative, relevant ways to incorporate pi into their marketing campaigns to insert themselves into the online conversation around the annual event. However, the timeliness of the campaigns is key, as marketers face the challenge of pi’s popularity fizzling out shortly after March 14. Pi-related searches dropped 232% from March to April 2017.

While most of the marketers promoting Pi Day this year offer one-day deals, chain Bertucci's is capitalizing on the interest with a week-long promotion tied to its preview of a new spring menu, according to USA Today. The "Week of Pi" event includes "Pi Twosday" and "Pi for Kids" on Wednesday.

Consumers growing interest in Pi Day has inspired many brands to create pi-themed promotions and should encourage others to follow. While pizza chains and bakeries have an obvious connection to the day, there are opportunities for other brands to get in on the celebrations with promotions with pricing at $3.14 or 3.14% discounts.

Marketers continue to leverage made-up holidays, like Pi Day, to create fun campaigns that drive social media engagement and in-store foot traffic. Chains like Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme regularly give away freebies on National Doughnut Day, for example.