Pizza Hut is a nostalgic brand for most millennials and the generations that came before them. But for the new generation, it’s hard to conjure up nostalgic memories of a place they’ve never stepped foot in. Although no official brief was given, we were tasked as an agency to make Pizza Hut more relevant in culture. The objective then was: How do we get Gen Z excited about Pizza Hut through earned media and social chatter? We take on a space that speaks to them. The all-in budget was $100,000 with just $40K to produce the campaign that would live on social media in the USA.

One of the hottest trends in fashion last year was vintage streetwear. Meanwhile, Pizza Hut had just debuted a TV campaign featuring Craig Robinson in a custom-made tracksuit paired with a blinged-out pizza chain. Let’s just say Twitter was ablaze looking for that tracksuit. So we decided to give our pizza lovers what they wanted. Capitalizing on this and the fact that athleisure was a relevant fashion trend, we came up with the Tastewear Collection—the newest line of pizza gear. Because when you’re eating the best, you’ve gotta look your best.

Our target for this campaign included younger millennials and Gen Z pizza fans who needed to feel a connection to the brand without having ever stepped in an old school Pizza Hut.

The Pizza Hut Tastewear™ line brings to life classic Pizza Hut brand elements in the form of limited-edition apparel and accessories, and marks the first drop from the new PizzaHutShop.com that officially opened on July 27, 2021. Our piping-hot Tastewear™ collection includes the tracksuit, pizza slides, pizza chain, the Tiffany lamp T-shirt and, of course, the red cups. All these iconic items were packaged in a specially designed packaging in the shape of the iconic red Hut. We worked with photographer Phil Kline to capture the collection using high contrast reds to emulate ’90s photography. We made sure to showcase diverse models that didn’t feel too high fashion. To launch the collection, we partnered with prominent fashion, Gen Z and nostalgia influencers on Instagram and TikTok. Items started to sell out within the first 24 hours.

The social campaign resulted in more than 1.02 billion earned impressions and 5.5 million more on social media. We recruited a new generation of fans, transitioning Pizza Hut from that old pizza restaurant to a lifestyle brand.

Full results:

PR:

-1.02B+ Total Earned Impressions

-151 Total Earned Placements

-Earned media’s social content placement in Cosmopolitan, Hollywood Life, Best Products, FoodSided and SheFinds among others.

-Branded lifestyle content: 7.5MM+ Total Earned Impressions

Organic Influencer Results:

-5MM Impressions (vs. 1.2MM Impressions Goal)

-6.2% Avg. Engagement Rate (vs. 2.25% Avg. Engagement Rate Goal)

Paid Influencer Results:

-1.6MM Paid Impressions (vs. 1.4MM Paid Impressions Goal)

-$0.23 Avg. CPC (vs. $1.50 Avg. CPC Goal)

Organic Influencer Support: Instagram

-6.32% Avg. Engagement Rate–Over 200% Above Industry Avg. (2.05%)

-14.06% Avg. Story Reach Rate—Industry Avg. (4.0%)