Dairy checkoff is continuing its work in revitalizing the pizza industry, unlocking benefits for dairy farmers along the way, through its ongoing partnership efforts with food service companies such as Domino’s.

The impact of these partnerships on production has been substantial, as checkoff’s local and national efforts with partners in pizza and food service have helped to move four billion incremental pounds of milk from January of 2014 to July of 2015.

“Pizza consumption was on a steady decline for five-plus years and had been a driver for increased consumption the prior 25 years,” said Neil Hoff, a Texas dairy farmer and chairman of the United Dairy Industry Association, the federation of state and regional dairy checkoff organizations. “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, and continued with checkoff’s assistance in creating and marketing the Domino’s Smart Slice, a kid-approved school pizza that contains 100% mozzarella, meets the USDA’s school meal guidelines, and has been served in over 6500 school lunch programs nationwide.

The dairy industry’s latest efforts in partnership with Domino’s include a 10-day marketing and media promotion starting on Black Friday for all Domino’s pizzas ordered online. The promotion will include national Domino’s advertising and digital marketing, as well as online conversations from the checkoff.

Domino’s has run a similar promotion aimed at online shoppers the past few years, but this year’s promotion will begin three days earlier, on November 27th.

“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.”