The Facebook fan page of popular local pizza restaurant chain Mario's received tens of thousands of hits with it's Mario's and Me Christmas promotion. To enter, participants had to upload their photo which included an image of the Mario's icon interacting with them. The winners were chosen from the photos that received the most votes. Getting top votes totalling 15,827 and the first prize was Crystal Horne. The popularity of her entry "Mario's and Me" showing Mario helping her decorate a Christmas tree earned her an iPad.
Placing second was Mylene Simbahan whose "Mario and My Nephew" showing a beautiful baby among the Christmas gifts while Mario decorates, got 12,818 votes. She won an iPod Touch. Third place went to James Thomas with his comedic entry "Why Mario? Why?" James's upload showed Mario seductively feeding his girlfriend while he is in the background whining while holding his travelling bag. He got 6,106 votes and an iPod Nano. In the fun spirit of Christmas, Mario's surprised fans that entered with a bonus prize. This was not advertised when the promotion was initially posted. The bonus prize went to entrants receiving more than 1,000 votes. They won a free 1-topping family sized pizza.
These winners were Grazielli Peixoto de Azevedo-4,033 votes; Nicole Wacnagan-2,460 votes; Nicoli Rajcoomar-2,174 votes; Shoma Gobin-1,482 votes; Gregory Hewitt-1,468 votes; Nikkishia Maraj-1,299 votes; and Marisa Meharris -1,226 votes. The Mario's and Me promotion proved to be very popular, even attracting entrants from overseas. Second place winner Mylene Simbahan hails from the Philippines. The positive response to the Mario's and Me promotion shows that Mario's pizza, well loved for its tasty servings, is making much headway in the digital universe too. The first Mario's Pizzeria opened its doors on June 2, 1972, at the Valpark Shopping Plaza, to become the first ever pizza shop in Trinidad. Since then, Mario's has grown to 19 company-owned stores across T&T and two franchise restaurants in Guyana and St Vincent. Boomers was added in 2007 to the Mario's Group and now operates seven stores.Mario's/Boomers employs more than 425 people in its local operations.