• by Shankar Gupta , December 28, 2006

Domino's Pizza will auction off iPods, flat-screen TVs and other high-priced items on eBay as part of a new promotion for its $9.99 pizza deals.

For the promotion, set to start Monday, Domino's will place the items for sale for $9.99 on eBay. But people who wish to purchase one of the items will have first have to participate in an online scavenger hunt by visiting another Web site, www.anythinggoesdeal.com. There, they can obtain clues directing them to location of the eBay items by playing a short game or puzzle. The contest will run through Feb. 5.

This online promotion is the latest in a string of interactive efforts by the pizza chain. In November, Domino's offered free pizza to anyone with a combination of "Brook" or "Lynn" in their names as a promotion for its Brooklyn-style pizza and its online game hosted at BrooklynStylePizza.com. In September, the company launched a microsite, Fudgems.com, to promote its newly released dessert item, the Oven-Baked Brownie Squares. The site featured games and downloads.

A spokesman for the company said Domino's was pairing the online promotion with TV ads that would specifically mention eBay and the site's URL, as well as an "aggressive" PR campaign and opt-in text message updates. "Online is becoming a bigger part of our marketing arsenal," he said. "Much of our core target audience is online and prefers to get information that way."