With the coronavirus lockdown extended, one might have run out of cooking recipes, and it is obvious that you might be tempted to order your favourite snack from your favourite restaurant. But is it safe to do so? Do you risk a chance of infection? By ordering, are you exposing the delivery person to the risk of infection? At a time when the government has strictly suggested everyone to stay at home, is it safe and ethical to order food from outside?
To answer all your questions restaurants are going all out to do the same in times of Covid. Ever wondered how your pizza or that favourite meal you ordered was made? The answer to your question is now the new reality with some restaurants taking the lead. Instapizza, a homegrown pizza brand has introduced CrustFlix, where customers can live-stream what’s cooking in the kitchen all day. CrustFlix will now be a permanent part of Instapizza’s business model and will improve and iterate on it in the future.
Speaking about Live streaming of the kitchen as a new concept, Sonali Saraogi Singh , Co-Founder at Instapizza said, “COVID-19 has caused deep uncertainty and turmoil throughout the country and the world. Food delivery, like many other businesses, has been disrupted on both the supply and demand sides. We believe that the most important thing for our customers today is the trust that they place in our brand. They trust us to make great pizza, to provide great value for money, and more than ever before, to be 100% hygienic. At Instapizza, we firmly believe that radical transparency will help us build that trust, and that is we decided to live stream our kitchens.”
With the trend of live streaming has started to pick do you think all kitchens will follow this suit to which Singh said, “I hope and would encourage more brands/ kitchens to follow this exercise. Not only does it give transparency to customers but makes us 100% accountable in maintaining the rigid hygiene standards that we’ve outlined for ourselves. Our campaign helped the brand gain customer’s trust, where #CrustFlix, enabled people to see every single step that the brand took to make sure their teams, kitchens, and food were 100% safe and hygienic.”
“We have launched CrustFlix in order to be radically transparent about our own safety and hygiene procedures – by live-streaming our kitchens and making the feeds available publicly, we are ensuring that customers can see just how sparkling clean our outlets are.”
“We are the first brand in India to do so! In addition, we have started displaying the temperature of all staff on CrustFlix, and it is logged twice a day. We will also be rolling out a display of SpO2, which is a measure of blood oxygen saturation and another useful symptom to track with respect to the coronavirus.” said Singh on all the precautionary measures Instapizza ensures.
Highlighting the increase in website traffic Singh said, “The website traffic to InstaPizza increased by 15x in the month of May, with the brand receiving thousands of views, likes, comments across a month and a half long window of the campaign. We pride ourselves on the standards of safety maintained by InstaPizza across all our kitchens.”
“Our current aim was to use the live stream content to build an engaging client experience that would offer complete transparency in the way we make our pizzas. It’s been great learning for us as well as our staff, as even they realize the importance of their work. Our customer feedback on this has been brilliant as well! Though the campaign took some time to translate into sales, the overall impact since then has been roughly 13% week-on-week growth through the months of May, June and July as well.”
Speaking about the delivery facility to make sure that the last mile between the brand and the customer is covered safely Singh said, “We have partnerships with both Swiggy and Zomato and we have our own riders as well for any orders placed through our website. A lot of customers prefer to order directly with the brand so that there is complete ownership of the trail. We respect that and have our own riders on standby for them.”
To connect with the millennial audience, Instapizza used popular characters from iconic Netflix shows, speaking about the idea Singh said, “Using the vast database of content on Netflix to connect with our audience was a natural progression, who doesn’t love a great cheesy pizza whilst watching a popular show! The response has been fantastic and we continue to build deeper connections with existing and new customers through #CrustFlix.”
“We have taken inspiration Netflix shows and used popular characters to bring a touch of quirk to the way we have created safety protocols and live streaming of our kitchens. From Harvey Spector washing his hands of many deals- to the hand-washing every twenty minutes; from the heated Money Heist to daily temperature checks for staff, millennial audiences will identify with this campaign that picks one of their favourite mainstays in lockdown to establish with Instapizza. The aim was to show that the brand can keep its consumers safe while baking those crusts. All of this can be seen live by tuning in to #CrustFlix (www.instapizza.in/crustflix).”
Speaking about their upcoming plans Singh said, “We are working on a lightning-quick, app-based, contactless ordering and dining experience for pizza as a quick-service in-store item thus reducing the human to human interaction whilst positioning quality and convenience at the forefront of all technology-enabled solutions. We expect that a post-COVID normal will see a variety of trends emerge that will help drive food delivery sales.”
“Our committed focus and investment in technology will further allow us to embrace the future of hospitality as the country recovers from the pandemic”, said Singh.
Highlighting the key concepts that are very dear to them to which Singh said, “Firstly, that customers will begin to trust appreciate innovative, homegrown Indian brands, and secondly that spending will be driven by value-for-money. Instapizza’s key focus is and has been giving customers value for their money, it is all about paisa vasool; the ultimate Indian ideal of full-marks satisfaction at the right price.”
“Our focus on paisa vasool breaks the industry standard “2 for Rs. 99 each” deal with a menu of single pizzas priced from Rs. 95 with no restrictions. With distinctly desi toppings, 100% mozzarella cheese, the option to add sauces like tandoori mayonnaise and mint chutney on top for Rs. 9, we have the right desitadka to ensure that young India can strike the right balance between modern and traditional.”, concluded Singh.
