Pizza Hut unveiled their new Hot Honey Pizza, marrying the sweetness of honey with a fiery punch. Released just in time for Valentine’s Day, this bold fusion speaks volumes about the complexities of romances today. And so, as the brand that wants to become the “Pizza of Pop Culture,” we wanted their Hot Honey Pizza launch to make its way to Gen Z’s group chats and TikToks on V-Day. To make sending a Goodbye Pie the new “un-romantic” gesture for Valentine’s Day.

Recognizing the importance of balance in relationships, we understand that the perfect dynamic blends passion and romance. The Hot Honey pizza embodies this balance, harmonizing sweet and heat for a heavenly combination. As the creators of Hot Honey pizza, Pizza Hut aims to maintain this equilibrium, serving as the go-to brand for both good and bad news, ensuring every experience-even if its a breakup- is balanced and satisfying.

We think of Valentine’s Day as a holiday bursting with love. But the Tuesday beforehand— dubbed Red Tuesday— is actually the year’s biggest day for breakups. And our young audience knew better than anyone that breakups in the modern dating scene are not fun for either party. So to launch Pizza Hut’s new Hot Honey pizza, we created a way for people to deliver the spicy news in a sweeter way.

Goodbye Pies: The Hot Honey pizza that breaks up with them for you. Using our site, dumpers ordered a free Goodbye Pie to the dumpee’s address, leaving our drivers to deliver the spicy news. In addition to delivering breakups in person, we also delivered them over text. We wrote and sent that dreaded breakup text for you, along with a gift card for a Hot Honey Goodbye Pie. You dodged the awkward conversation. They got a delicious pizza. Win-win.

How could Pizza Hut celebrate Valentine’s Day in the most anti-V Day way possible?

This idea was designed to break through the noise and amplify the launch of Hot Honey by taking a normally lovey-dovey holiday and injecting some spicy, relatable reality into it.

There’s a misconception that breakups don’t happen around Valentine’s Day, but ‘Red Tuesday’ actually boasts the most breakups. So Pizza Hut is launching “Goodbye Pies” to deliver spicy news in a sweet way for FREE with new Hot Honey Pizza.

Target: Advertising/Marketing Trade, Consumer, Women’s Interest, Business (light), Food, QSR, MC

Distribution: We pitched agenda-setting press outlets under embargo prior to launch, selected top media outlets to taste Hot Honey first-hand, distributed press releases on PR Newswire at launch for wider distribution and SEO, and leveraged Lindsay Morgan as a brand voice to support the new campaign via quotes

We launched with various social media posts across Instagram, TikTok, and X where we directed people to our website, GoodbyePies.com, where they could order a free GoodbyePie to their ex’s address. The Hot Honey pizza came in a special limited-edition Goodbye Pie box, complete with the dumper’s name on it, and our delivery drivers delivered the spicy news in a sweeter way. They were available from February 6th through the end of February 14th, and in total, we ended up giving out 556 Goodbye Pies.

The campaign garnered over 7 billion media impressions, over 1 million organic social impressions, $713,300 incremental SMV. It was featured in 1,652 media placements, 89% of which were feature stories and 60% of which included campaign assets, netting out to 100% positive to neutral sentiment.

It earned over 600 broadcast segments including, CNN, Fox News, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

It had stories in top-tier publications such as People, Forbes, Fast Company, Daily Mail, The New York Post, Fortune, USA Today, Mashed, MSN, Today, CBS News, Yahoo News, Fox Business, Psychology Today and over 1,000 more.

The Goodbye Pies website was visited 746,000, shattering the benchmark of previous successful campaigns by more than 700%. It was viewed on social nearly half a million times.

In total, 556 Goodbye Pies were given out, ending 556 relationships in a sweeter way.