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 enjoying a new career as a Pizza Hut delivery driver, allowing him to continue saying “hut” off the football field. An accompanying program will reward any city with free pizza if 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 offers 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 in the lead-up to the Super Bowl.
Dive Insight:
Pizza Hut is channeling sports fans’ anticipation around the final games of the current 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 that have recently announced commercials set to air during 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 career as a Pizza Hut delivery driver. The athlete emphasizes the word “hut” during a variety 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 will award the city of the first college or professional quarterback who says “pizza” immediately before “hut” 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 first to complete the challenge by tagging them with the hashtag #PizzaBeforeTheHut on social media, adding an interactive element to the campaign that could help boost both visibility and engagement.
The latest campaign from Pizza Hut is meant 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 as 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 focus by the chain as consumers continue to feel the impacts of rising prices. In November, parent Yum Brands announced that it is undertaking a strategic review of its Pizza Hut division that could culminate in a sale of the chain, a move that follows seven quarters of same-store sales declines.
