Daily Brief:
- Pizza Hut and retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady have joined forces on a new national campaign already underway titled “Pizza Before the Hut,” per details shared with Marketing Dive.
- A 30-second spot sees Brady having fun with a new profession as a Pizza Hut delivery driver, allowing him to proceed saying “hut” off the football field. An accompanying program will reward any city with free pizza in the event that they can get their quarterback to say “pizza” immediately before “hut” during a game.
- The campaign spans TV, digital and social media platforms and promotes a new promotion from Pizza Hut that provides consumers a 16-inch Big New Yorker pizza for $10. The latest move from the pizza chain sees it join other marketers tapping into football hype within the lead-up to the Super Bowl.
Pizza Hut is channeling sports fans’ anticipation around the ultimate games of the present college and NFL football seasons for its national ad campaign and global partnership with Brady, a now-retired quarterback known for winning a record seven Super Bowls. The pizza chain joins a roster of other brands tapping into football hype, including many which have recently announced commercials set to air through the Super Bowl on Feb. 8.
Key to Pizza Hut’s campaign is a 30-second spot, “That Feeling,” that riffs on how often Brady has said the word “hut” during his time as a quarterback. In the ad, Brady leans into the signature call, this time in a new profession as a Pizza Hut delivery driver. The athlete emphasizes the word “hut” during quite a lot of pizza drop-offs, asserting “Brady is back,” before ultimately being tackled by an elderly woman who misinterprets his intentions.
Pizza Hut also launched a program running through Feb. 8 that can award town of the primary college or skilled quarterback who says “pizza” immediately before “hut” right into a live game’s play call with a free post-season Big New Yorker pizza party. The program, which is explained via microsite, encourages sports fans to pressure their quarterback to be the primary to complete the challenge by tagging them with the hashtag #PizzaBeforeTheHut on social media, adding an interactive element to the campaign that would help boost each visibility and engagement.
The latest campaign from Pizza Hut is supposed to promote its biggest pizza, the Big New Yorker, and a limited-time promotion offering the food item for $10. Pizza Hut has often linked its marketing to sports, including through a recent holiday campaign that featured Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen and promoted the return of its Triple Treat Box. Last March, the pizza chain leveraged its title because the official pizza sponsor of the NCAA March Madness tournament to introduce a second-screen mobile companion that leveraged artificial intelligence to dole exclusive offers, real-time reactions and hot takes.
Value also continues to be a spotlight by the chain as consumers proceed to feel the impacts of rising prices. In November, parent Yum Brands announced that it’s undertaking a strategic review of its Pizza Hut division that would culminate in a sale of the chain, a move that follows seven quarters of same-store sales declines.
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