The problem with some loyalty programs is that by the time you buy enough of the food or drinks that are earning you points, you're kind of sick of them and don't even really want a free one that badly. That's why we're very pleasantly surprised by Domino's new Points for Pies promotion. It will give you points for any pizza, not just Domino's, toward earning a free pizza (but yeah, that one's from Domino's).
This brings up a lot of questions for us, but first, let's recap the rules here: Download the Domino's app, enroll in the program, and starting February 2, you hold up your phone to scan any pizza. That includes Pizza Hut, your favorite local pizza parlor, frozen pizza, even, according to the Domino's video, a dog's plastic pizza chew toy. And to all you scammers out there already thinking about how to trick the system, the “terms and conditions” even say you can use "an image of a pizza." When you submit a scan, you can earn 10 points. The catch is that you can only earn 10 points per week (though the first "week" is February 2-3), and if they've already distributed the total number of points allocated for that week (we're talking in the millions), you might have to wait until the following week. Once you collect 60 points, you will earn a free medium, two-topping hand-tossed pizza.
How can Domino's possibly make money with this, if we can just fake our pizza-buying and pick up a free pie? What are they gaining? Publicity, of course. Plus, this little gimmick might get more people to try Domino's again after they may have been eating another brand. And the third, they're getting what all loyalty programs want, our data, including our pizza-eating habits, and a way to lure us back in again later. As we're all learning lately, our data is actually worth a lot of money out there, possibly more than the cost of a pizza. But you know, for now, eat up!