William Walsh, the creator of the GreenBox pizza containers that are about to take the country by storm, owes a great deal of his success to digg.com. A blog called asylum.com ran a promotional video for GreenBox last April and the unassuming post turned out to be the most “dugg” article in asylum’s history. Why? Who knows. Maybe internet users just thought the ingeniously designed new pizza box’s were that cool. One has to admit, turning what used to just be clumsy, inconveniently sized trash first into paper plates then transforming what’s left of the box into a conveniently sized storage container for leftovers is pretty awesome. Perhaps there wasn’t anything more exciting going on that day.
Whatever the cause of GreenBox’s unexpected viral popularity, it’s a big part of what took a good idea and made it a great business. According to Walsh, “When we go into a meeting with a pizza chain or a distributor, what we point to most is the response from social media. The executives are quite aware of sites like Digg, and it’s been a powerful tool for us.”
GreenBox has just signed a deal with PFG-Roma, which is the country’s largest distributor of Italian foods to restaurants and food specialty shops. And, even more exciting, the company and its product are “being reviewed by three of the top four national pizza chains.” Walsh says. ”We feel like negotiations are moving along with a couple of them.” It’s always nice to hear about a little guy making good in the world of the corporate giants. If that little guy happens to be saving us from having to do the dishes and take out the trash on pizza night, well, so much the better.
