Pizza Hut is famous for...pizza. Duh. The problem is large, one-topping pizzas are one of the most common and yet least profitable orders Pizza Hut receives. And when call volume to restaurants is high and staffing is low, we lose many potential orders due to customers being left on hold. Our brief? How do we not only keep people from hanging up when they get put on hold but actually encourage them to stay on the phone and order more food too?

How do you get Gen Z to patiently wait on the phone? Two words: hold music.

Yup, the most boring, oft-ignored plague of elevators and customer service lines everywhere. Our idea was to turn Pizza Hut hold messages—typically reserved by industry competitors for stock sales messages—into a fun song about one of our more profitable, pizza add-ons. Chicken wings! With our multi-talented celebrity brand spokesman Craig Robinson on the keys, we wrote a simple, 90-second ballad to chicken wings. That included the disclaimer, which Craig also sang.

Humor and hold music do not exactly go hand in hand. Which is exactly why our approach was to lean into comedy. For our Gen Z audience, which loves absurdist humor, our strategy was to delight them with something completely out of left field.

The song was meant to be unexpectedly funny, giving you the sensation that you stumbled upon some Easter egg buried deep within Pizza Hut's phone tree. The plan was not to promote it, but rather let our customers discover it, then share the song with the broader community.

Knowing Craig Robinson is a comedian famous for his use of music, specifically the piano, in his comedy, we composed a simple song about chicken wings for Pizza Hut's hold music. When it came time to produce the track, Craig took our version and ran with it, ad-libbing the way that only he can. Ultimately, it's the spirit that Craig imbues into the music that keeps customers laughing and on hold for minutes on end.

The song was distributed to franchisees for use in their hold messages at locations nationwide. No paid support was provided. And yet, it wasn't long before people discovered it.

Pizza Hut's hold music went viral. A woman (@noraeinhellll) ordering Pizza Hut recorded herself on TikTok calling a local Pizza Hut, asking to be put on hold just so she could listen to the music. That video received over three million views, resulting in national media coverage including The Today Show, ABC News, Yahoo! and more, generating over 605 million impressions for $0 in paid media. Best of all, people all over the country were literally calling Pizza Hut to be put on hold, and then, of course, order chicken wings with their pizza.

In short, music to our ears.