Pizza Hut shifts tactics

Mike Savage, Media Asia, 29 June 2006, 11:04AM

Fast food major rolls out more story-telling TVCs to enhance brand perception

Pizza Hut...interaction has increased as consumers get involved with the campaign’s storyline

Pizza Hut has added four new TVCs to its ‘N Discovery’ campaign which first broke earlier this year, confirming a shift for the brand to use more story-telling in its ads.

Pizza Hut Hong Kong marketing director Eunice Wong said the original three TVCs, which showed the potential beginnings of a relationship between two characters, N and P, were well-received by consumers in post-campaign research. “Many of them were trying to come up with stories for us about how they should meet up,” she said.

The TVCs were the first time Pizza Hut had given different ads an underlying storyline, in a bid to enhance consumer perceptions of the brand in line with changes taking place in the restaurants. The four new spots adopt the same tone as the first three, hinting at developments rather than revealing anything specific. “There is no beginning or end to the story,” Wong explained. “You can jump in and start with any of them in the whole series.”

Pizza Hut plans to re-air the original ads alongside the new spots in Q3, Wong said, presenting TV viewers with a mix of seven different executions.

Ogivly & Mather worked with Pizza Hut on the campaign, which features the two characters played by local celebrities Shawn Yu and Monie Tung, across a range of different media. These include print advertorials, inside restaurants, on packaging for home delivery and in mobile and internet.

Pizza Hut is also planning to launch a new digital campaign to promote a new product next month, ‘Where’s the salmon?’ Consumers will be invited to post their own photos online with a salmon visual hidden somewhere in the picture. N and P will post their own pictures while Shawn Yu will send a note to the press to help generate PR.

This article was first published on Media Asia