A few ideas on how to help the cause...

1) Get Phreak to show champion spotlights for Dominion along with the normal ones. (Basically what you said about having players do footage of Dominion.)

Why it would work: In the champion spotlights they show strategy for SR and most people like to try out what they see as cool. Since people generally view official videos of pro players as cool Dominion would seem more enticing if they gave it a little more love in spotlights. This would also solve the problem of people not knowing about it as it would be blatantly obvious to anyone who watches champion spotlights (meaning just about everyone.)

2) Add a second win of the day to Dominion separate from Classic. (This has been suggested by a few people but the only one I know of is FDru.)

Why it would work: People all like to take advantage of the first win bonus. Some people get on strictly to make sure they get the first win. If Riot added a separate bonus (which makes moderate sense anyway seeing as it's a different game mode/ball game entirely) people would be more likely to play Dominion for the extra IP, thus effectively getting people interested in Dominion of their own free will.

3) Start holding Riot vs. Community for Dominion.

Why it would work: Riot vs. Community is always a great amount of fun when they do it for SR due to people always wanting to play against Riot at every chance they get to try and whoop up on some Rioters so if they did it for Dominion as well people would play Dominion to get some more action. This would have to be done on separate dates as the ones on SR to avoid favoritism as that wouldn't work out in favor of what we're trying to accomplish here.

4) Make the buffs in the center of the map more similar to the capture pads in the new TT. (This could promote strategy further as not only would you have to defend points but now you also would have to pay attention to buff timers and this would also make these buffs more relevant as lots of players don't even bother with the buffs half the time.)

Why it would work: This is an interesting one. As you said, people aren't interested in or don't see the strategy involved in Dominion. This would make the strategy more obvious/noticeable and could also enhance the meta in a new way by adding something to help the losing teams if they can get there to control it.

For example: Purple team is down 100 Nexus points and needs a way to come back fast or they'll be defeated. A few of them run to the center of the map to grab the buffs and if Blue team decides to intercept, the nodes will be left less protected, effectively creating an opening for them to change the tides of battle. People would no longer be able to say that the game is "decided in the first 5 minutes" or anything similar because it simply wouldn't be! (Although I don't think it's decided that early anyway as I've come back from tons of hopeless situations.)

Well, that's all I've got for now but if/when I think of some more stuff I'll add it to the list. Dominion is a great addition to the game mode lineup and I'd really like to see it grow. On a side note, I think Riot should consider Dominion for an advertising point. No other MOBA that I can think of has any separate mode like it.

EDIT: I just noticed that on Ezreal's updated champion spotlight they have included a piece for Dominion at the end of the video. I'm checking other champion spotlights to see if this is included in others.

The problem I see with Dominion is that it's not visible to the larger community. To me, Dominion is far and away the more fun game mode, but no one sees their favourite "celebrity" players playing it, so why should they bother? All the pros have made their names playing in SR, they are paid to do well in SR, so they naturally focus their attention there. Dominion is new, and lacks the major visibility it needs to flourish.

I play Dominion because it cuts out the slow parts of SR, immediately putting the player into the faster, more fun aspects of the game (again, to me anyways): teamfights, contesting objectives, and buying powerful items. The smaller time commitment is also a plus, allowing me to play more games, with more champions, against more people.

Dominion will certainly benefit from the addition of a Ranked option, but it needs something alongside that, to attract players to it. Dominion could also definitely do with a balancing pass, endorsement from top competitive teams and/or Riot Games themselves, or something else. If we want to get Dominion on its feet and gaining momentum in the community, effort is going to be needed from both Riot and the community.

I try and convince my friends to play it more all the time, and so far no one seems to want to. It's really a shame, I think a lot of them would enjoy it if they played it more than once a month (maybe).

i think the addition of the blackfire torch, especially to the arsenal to champions like teemo will make dominion more balanced and enjoyable for everyone

Can't tell if troll or serious... I agree that changing items around is a great way to re-balance a map but BFT is just broken.

But continuing here... These are good ideas but the biggest problem right now (what my first post tried to convey) is that there is little to no publicity and promotion of Dominion by Riot in general.

There's only so much the community can do, we need better tools to help promote Dominion or for Riot to start supporting Dominion in updates and tutorials. And by updates/tutorials I mean news and youtube. We have Nome, and he is the savior.

balance > ranked > promotion (in that order) = success

Bump

Anything would help.
I've always been a fan of the hyperbole.
Announce "More IP now awarded for Dominion games!"
Then give 5 or 10 more IP per game. It's truthful. It makes droves of people think about playing Dominion. Some of that is bound to carry over into sustained playerbase.

A front page post just saying, "Hey! Dominion!" would also boost player count, I'm pretty sure.

We need ranked because as of right now 99% of LoL players see Dominion as a joke.

i play dominion but having 4 afks out of my last 5 games is pushing back toward sr.

use jedi mind tricks?