Dive Brief:
- Pizza Hut is celebrating quarterbacks this football season with a new national campaign featuring Josh Allen, according to information shared with Marketing Dive.
- The Buffalo Bills star appears in a 15-second spot alongside Pizza Hut mascot Hutty in which they deliver value boxes on a branded golf cart. The campaign also includes a 15-second ad featuring Hutty and kids playing football.
- The Yum brand temporarily dropped the word “pizza” from its name and will be known as simply Hut, in a nod to what quarterbacks say at the start of a play. The change, which is in effect until Aug. 31, was promoted across the chain’s social media channels.
Dive Insight:
Yum’s sale of the Pizza Hut business outside of mainland China to private equity firm LongRange Capital is set to close by the end of August. As the separation creeps closer, Pizza Hut is leaning on a familiar playbook of combining value with excitement for the upcoming football season. Word play is the central joke, with Allen emphasizing the “Hut” in the brand’s name like seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady did during the lead-up to the Super Bowl.
The campaign shows off a game day edition of its Triple Treat Box and Pepsi products. To continue the focus on value, marketing also coincides with the release of a large, three-topping pizza with choice of crust priced at $10. Limited edition pizza boxes that can be cut out into field goals further tie the campaign back to the football season.
Fans are encouraged to submit a video showing them shouting “hut” in action for a chance to win free pizza for life. Pizza Hut is broadening the scope of the giveaway that occurred during a Brady-centered campaign earlier this year, where a city could win pizza if their quarterback said “pizza” right before “hut” during a game.
As consumers continue to feel the effects of economic uncertainty, Pizza Hut has repeatedly emphasized value in its advertising efforts. In July, it launched a nostalgia-inspired campaign under its “Hut Originals” platform. The campaign promoted a “Throwback Value Menu” inspired by the chain’s buffet items.
Pizza Hut has also worked to improve its loyalty program. In April, it shifted the program from being focused on point accumulation to experiences to align with a broader industry shift to add more perks to rewards programs.
Yum’s Q2 revenue totaled $2.17 billion, a 12% year-over-year increase, per an earnings release. Pizza Hut posted revenue totaling $254 million during the same period, a 6% year-over-year increase. In June, Yum announced it was selling Pizza Hut’s non-China business to LongRange Capital for $1.5 billion and its China business to Yum China Holdings for $1.2 billion.
