The dairy checkoff’s work with partners such as Domino’s continues to revitalize the pizza category to benefit dairy farmers.

The checkoff’s cheese work in pizza and foodservice has helped move 4 billion incremental pounds of milk from January of 2014 to July of 2015, according to Dairy Management Inc., which manages the national dairy checkoff.

Much of this success results from the checkoff’s work locally and nationally with partners such as Domino’s, said Neil Hoff, a Texas dairy farmer and chairman of the United Dairy Industry Association, the federation of state and regional dairy checkoff organizations.

“Pizza consumption was on a steady decline for five-plus years and had been a driver for increased consumption the prior 25 years,” Hoff said. “With that business scenario, we entered the marketplace with Domino’s in 2009 to turn the category around. They said, ‘What can we do together?’ This created a catalytic effect in the pizza industry to put more cheese on the pies.”

The first success came that year with the launch of the American Legends specialty pizza line, which uses up to 40% more cheese than the traditional pizza at Domino’s.

It continued with Domino’s Smart Slice, a kid-approved school pizza that the checkoff helped create. Smart Slice uses pizza cheese made with 100% real mozzarella and meets  USDA’s school meal guidelines.

Local dairy checkoff organizations have worked with Domino’s to serve Smart Slice in more than 6,500 schools, which helps protect dairy’s freedom to operate in a critical environment.

The latest example of how dairy farmers and importers are working with Domino’s is through a 10-day marketing and media promotion starting on “Black Friday” for all pizzas ordered through www.dominos.com.

Domino’s has run a “Cyber Monday” promotion aimed at online shoppers the past few years. This year, it will begin three days earlier (Nov. 27 to Dec. 6) thanks to local checkoff organizations that have helped Domino’s increase its marketing and media work. The promotion will include national Domino’s advertising and digital marketing, plus online conversations from the checkoff.

“Local promotion farmer leaders support this effort because the investment goes directly to markets where people live and we expect it to deliver positive results,” Hoff said. “This is another strong example of local and national dairy promotion dollars working together to increase demand for dairy.”

The partnership between dairy farmers and Domino’s franchisee owners works because they have much in common, Hoff said. Both are local, small business owners that create jobs and have other positive impacts on their communities.

“Our partnership with America’s dairy farm families continues to uncover new ways to deliver more delicious cheese to our customers across the country,” said Domino’s Chief Marketing Officer Joe Jordan. “Our relationship with dairy farmers is a major strength for us, not just on Black Friday but every day.”