16872: Pizza Hut, Hut, Hike, Er, Punt!

 

Advertising Age reported Pizza Hut hired—or technically rehired—White advertising agencies, tapping Deutsch and VML for creative and customer marketing duties, respectively.

 

The moves coincide with Global Chief Brand Officer and US Chief Marketing Officer re-appointments at Pizza Hut.

 

The recycling revolving-door routine is sure to rerun ruinous results.

 

Has anyone considered simply improving the pizza?

 

Pizza Hut Hires Deutsch and VML In Agency Roster Shakeup

 

Agency changes come as the chain looks to rebound from a sales slump and reach new audiences

 

By Ewan Larkin

 

In a revamp of its agency roster, Pizza Hut has hired Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Deutsch and WPP’s VML to oversee creative and customer marketing, respectively. 

 

Deutsch will manage brand strategy and creative, assuming responsibilities previously held by GSD&M. In August, Pizza Hut parted ways with the Omnicom-owned agency, bringing to an end a relationship that had spanned six years. Deutsch’s remit will include paid social and video content, according to Pizza Hut. 

 

The appointment reunites Deutsch and Pizza Hut. The two worked together from 2014 to 2016, before Droga5 won the business. Deutsch, which picked up a project for Pizza Hut (below) before nabbing the full account, is also the lead agency for Yum Brands sibling Taco Bell. It won the Pizza Hut business without a formal review, as did VML.

 

VML, which has also previously worked with Pizza Hut, will oversee customer promotions, loyalty and CRM efforts, and digital assets. It’s a new role on the roster, designed to “further invest in the full digital consumer journey,” the chain told Ad Age.

 

The WPP agency will also handle organic social, taking away some work from ​​Mischief @ No Fixed Address, which was named social agency of record in November 2023. Pizza Hut confirmed that Mischief will no longer handle social, but added it will continue to tap the agency as a “valuable partner for earned buzz work.”

 

Mischief’s work for the chain has included campaigns such as “ResZAmes” and the “Personal Pan Pizza Hut.” The indie agency referred calls to comment to the client.

 

Pizza Hut will continue to work with Alison Brod Marketing + Communications for U.S. PR and Publicis Groupe’s Spark Foundry for media, it confirmed. The brand also works with RQ for influencer marketing and Tracey Locke for shopper marketing.

 

Pizza Hut had U.S. measured-media spending of $99 million in the first two quarters of 2024, according to data from MediaRadar, down 21.2% from the same period in 2023. The company spent $234 million on U.S. measured media for all of 2023, MediaRadar reported. 

 

The brand has made marketing leadership changes this year, including naming former PepsiCo executive Kalen Thornton as global chief brand officer. It also appointed Melissa Friebe as U.S. chief marketing officer. Friebe joined after nearly three decades at Taco Bell, most recently as chief brand strategy officer. 

 

Bringing on Deutsch and VML “signals the priority we place on creative work and customer engagement strategies,” Friebe said in a statement. The agencies will work together to drive a “new era of growth,” according to Pizza Hut, which in August told Ad Age it was focused on “modernizing the brand and reaching new audiences.”

 

The agency changes come as Pizza Hut has struggled to attract consumers. The chain’s U.S. same-store sales were down 1% for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, while Taco Bell reported that U.S. same-store sales were up 4%. Competitor Domino’s U.S. same-store sales were up 3% for the same period, while Papa Johns’ North America comparable sales were down 6%.

 

Other Yum Brands brands have made agency changes in recent months. In September, KFC moved to an agency roster model for its U.S. creative business, removing IPG’s MullenLowe as its lead shop. 

 

Contributing: Erika Wheless and E.J. Schultz

16646: Is Pizza Hut Set To Slice Its White Advertising Agency?

 

Mediapsssst at MediaPost speculated on a possible/probable account review for Pizza Hut, as the restaurant chain hired a new Global Chief Brand Officer from PepsiCo and US CMO from Taco Bell, mere weeks after recruiting former Wendy’s Global CMO to serve as US President. That’s a lot of fast food experience likely hungry for accelerated change.

 

It would be funny if a pink slip is delivered to incumbent White advertising agency GSD&M by an Uber Eats driver.

 

Is Pizza Hut Gearing Up For An Agency Roster Review?

 

By Richard Whitman, Columnist

 

Pizza Hut today announced the hiring of Kalen Thornton as Global Chief Brand Officer and Melissa Friebe as U.S. CMO, just weeks after hiring former Wendy’s Global CMO as U.S. president.

 

The appointments come amid a decline in sales at the company. In the first quarter same-store sales at the pizza chain, part of YUM! Brands, were down 7%.

 

Can a review of the company’s agency roster be far off?

 

It’s a rhetorical question. My guess is we’ll see the company pull the trigger on a review within the next month or two. That’s often the case when a company brings in new senior marketing talent.

 

Pizza Hut spent an estimated $216 million on measured media in 2023 according to agency research firm COMvergence.

 

Publicis Groupe’s Spark Foundry is the current U.S. media agency incumbent for Pizza Hut. Austin, TX-based GSD&M has been creative AOR since 2018. Last year the company appointed Mischief @ No Fixed Address as its social agency. Tracey Locke is the firm’s shopper marketing agency and Alison Brod Marketing + Communications handles PR.

 

Thornton will assume his new role in June and most recently served as Vice President of Sports and Entertainment Marketing for PepsiCo North America.

 

Friebe joins Pizza Hut from Taco Bell, (also part of YUM!) where she served in several positions over nearly three decades with the brand, most recently as Chief Brand Strategy Officer. She succeeds Lindsay Morgan, who is departing the brand after serving more than eight years in various marketing leadership roles.

14308: Patronizing Pizza Hut.

Advertising Age spotlighted the new campaign to kick off Pizza Hut becoming the official pizza of the NFL, a title formerly held by Papa John’s. This is like Curly replacing Shemp. The lead commercial—“Lines”—seems to be a counterpoint to John Schnatter’s cultural death spiral, presenting a patronizing pizza party topped with diversity, inclusion and plenty of cheesiness. The responsible White advertising agency is Goodby Silverstein & Partners, which adds an extra layer of hypocrisy to the pie. Pizza Hut Chief Brand Officer Marianne Radley gushed, “The tone of it and the message that’s coming across is something that’s been part of our brand values for years.” Okay, but how did the recent campaign featuring Italian stereotypes reflect the brand values? Plus, the pitch where GS&P won the business starred a standard, exclusive collection of White advertising agencies. Sorry, but Pizza Hut’s dedication to diversity and inclusion is just a bunch of lies lines.

Pizza Hut touches on racial diversity in football ad—but it’s no Nike

By Jessica Wohl

Less than a week after Nike tackled racial diversity head on with an ad featuring former National Football League player Colin Kaepernick, who began the movement to kneel during the national anthem, Pizza Hut is broaching the subject—a whole lot more lightly.

Unlike the reaction that greeted Nike, it’s doubtful the spot will generate any controversy for Pizza Hut, which is just beginning its first season as the official pizza of the NFL. That’s a designation it took over from Papa John’s after its now-departed founder John Schnatter blamed the league’s handling of player protests during the anthem for its weaker pizza sales.

Pizza Hut Chief Brand Officer Marianne Radley said the company hopes to use the first weekend of football season to spread a positive brand message. While the Pizza Hut ad doesn’t carry the NFL logo — more on that in a bit — it is clearly meant to deliver a message of unity to the 70 percent of Americans who identify as NFL fans.

The new spot, called “Lines,” a 30-second ad from new agency GSD&M, is set to run during every NFL game this weekend, and during some college games the following weekend, Radley told Ad Age on Thursday.

The spot begins with shots of various football moments as a voice-over mentions the line of scrimmage, goal lines and yard lines. Then the message is delivered, on cue, as a guy gets his pizzas delivered. The voice-over says, “If we look beyond the lines, all that’s left is common ground.” Then a gathering of people, from various ethnicities, happily eat pizza while watching football.

“It just creates a little bit more of that emotional reason,” Radley says of the spot. In other words, it takes just a hint of a societal stand.

The Pizza Hut ad, set to run during the first quarter of tonight’s game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Philadelphia Eagles, came together in about a month as a way to promote the work the company is doing on its “brand purpose,” says Radley. Cut downs will also run on social media.

The new spot is meant to complement Pizza Hut’s fall football campaign and share more about company values such as inclusiveness, unity, fun, and getting people together. “Let’s keep it simple, it’s about pizza and football,” she says. “We think pizza is something everything can agree on.”

Of course, it also lands weeks after Schnatter’s use of racial slurs became public and forced rival Papa John’s into PR overdrive. “It was definitely something we listened to and thought of,” Radley says.

With so much conversation about differences, she said, the time was right to focus on similarities. And for those customers who might want to switch chains, Pizza Hut is offering competitors’ customers a free pizza after they join its rewards program and make a purchase.

“We did share the ad with the NFL and it was well received by them,” says Radley.

Still, the spot doesn’t include the NFL shield, which official sponsors can use. Radley says that’s because Pizza Hut wants the values message to play more broadly, not just to NFL fans. The ad is also set to run during some college games the weekend of Sept. 15 (it’s an NCAA sponsor) and is meant to appeal to high school football fans as well.

Radley also showed the “Lines” spot to the Yum Brands chain’s franchisee board, on Thursday morning. “The tone of it and the message that’s coming across is something that’s been part of our brand values for years,” she says.

It also has a completely different feel from Pizza Hut’s typical marketing, which also got a new football update. Just this week Pizza Hut began airing spots featuring Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster of the Pittsburgh Steelers, hyping a $7.99 large, two-topping pizza online deal.

Those more traditional pizza spots will run throughout the season.

As for the ad that’s likely to keep generating buzz, the Colin Kaepernick spot for Nike, “I think Nike definitely gave this a lot of thought and they decided Kaepernick was the right person to represent their 30th anniversary,” Radley says of Nike’s spot, which commemorates the 30th anniversary of its “Just Do It” work.

14263: Aretha Franklin (1942-2018).

The late Aretha Franklin inspired commercials including American Express, Mickey D’s, Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Prodigy Internet and Snickers.

12302: Pizza Hut—Digital Dimwits.

Advertising Age reported Pizza Hut handed its creative digital duties to Deutsch LA. Hey, why not? The client already demonstrated questionable intelligence by approving Deutsch LA’s lame and stereotypical campaign featuring old Italians hating new menu items. So go ahead and assign the digital work to an agency that recently received a spanking from the FTC for deceptive online messaging. Incumbent Digitas will apparently stay on the roster to cover digital media buying and planning, which could be a precaution for policing Deutsch. Then again, it actually means there will now be two White agencies actively inflating YouTube views, faking Facebook likes, tweeting Twitter raves, loading up LinkedIn love, etc.

Deutsch Los Angeles Picks Up Digital Duties on Taco Bell

Incumbent Digitas Will Stay on Roster for Digital Media Buying and Planning

By Maureen Morrison

Deutsch Los Angeles, the lead creative agency on Taco bell, is adding digital to its duties.

Publicis Groupe’s Digitas in San Francisco had been handling digital for the chain, and just recently helped launch its mobile-ordering and payment app in late October. Deutsch handled the TV creative, but the biggest splash of that campaign was Taco Bell’s blackout of all its social media for a couple of days to draw attention to the announcement. Digitas also created the design of the app, on which it will continue to work.

Digitas will also continue to handle digital media planning and buying. Its sibling agency Spark handles media planning, and WPP’s MEC handles buying.

A spokesman for Taco Bell confirmed the change but declined to elaborate.

Digitas, which won the chain’s digital business in 2012, said in a statement that it was proud of its Taco Bell work and looked forward to doing more. “While we are disappointed by this decision especially on the heels of the transformative mobile ordering launch (which DigitasLBi had a heavy hand—and heart—in creating), we move forward with pride in our people, and conviction for our work,” the agency said. “We continue to be a valued partner for (and value our partnership with) Taco Bell, as we continue our work across digital media, mobile/app, CRM, loyalty, among others.”

Deutsch called Taco Bell a digital marketing leader. The agency has been working on some digital business for the last year and a half, but that now the shop will handle social, digital and platform work, according to Winston Binch, chief digital officer at Deutsch L.A. “We’re most successful when we’re deep in the business,” he said. “Given we’re deeply involved with the Taco Bell brand, having our digital and social team in there now will lead to really great things.”

The move is Deutsch’s latest pickup from Yum Brands, which owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC. This summer, the agency picked up the Pizza Hut creative account from McGarryBowen without a review. Pizza Hut’s digital account remained with MRY.

Deutsch had also been taking more and more Taco Bell creative work from FCB in the last couple years, to the point that it became the lead agency on the account, though FCB still handles aspects like merchandising. Deutsch L.A. earlier this year led marketing for Taco Bell’s breakfast menu introduction, the chain’s biggest rollout in its history. The shop had picked up increasing digital work from Taco Bell as well.

Deutsch has been putting significant effort into building its digital offering in recent years. Mr. Binch, a former CP&B exec, joined Deutsch in April 2011 and has since grown its digital group to include some 200 employees, according to a person familiar with the agency.

Taco Bell spent about $327.5 million on U.S. measured media in 2013, according to Kantar Media. It’s by far the biggest spender of the Yum brands, with KFC second at $284 million and Pizza Hut third at $247 million.

12240: Pizza Hut Haters Unite!

Pizza Hut is launching its revitalized menu and brand with a painfully long video featuring allegedly real Italians pooh-poohing the new pies. The big idea was to let people with experience making authentic pizza judge the fresh offerings. Um, does anyone connect Pizza Hut’s fare with anything from Italy? This concept is the equivalent of asking Latinos weigh in on Taco Bell foodstuff. Additionally, the heavy stereotyping is questionable. Granted, Pizza Hut’s cartoonish characters may not be as bad as the mobster clichés once presented by Godfather’s Pizza, but is it really necessary to push such imagery? White advertising agency Deutsch LA—which landed the account sans a review—is no stranger to cultural cluelessness. The shop showed a Caucasian speaking like a Jamaican for Volkswagen and positioned Dr. Pepper Ten as a males-only soft drink. Plus, agency figurehead Donny Deutsch has made multiple appearances in this blog’s “C’mon White Man!” series. Pizza Hut should invite real advertising professionals to critique the Deutsch LA work. Or better yet, just hire real advertising professionals next time.

12210: Pizza Hut Seeks More Dough.

Advertising Age reported on the desperate moves Pizza Hut is making to turn around its sinking sales. In addition to 10 new crusts, six new sauces, 11 specialty pizzas, an overhauled website, new logo and fresh uniforms for employees, Pizza Hut handed its account to a new White advertising agency last summer—and Deutsch landed the billings sans a review! So while the fast feeder is undergoing a radical evolution, it’s business as usual on the marketing front, with Corporate Cultural Collusion baked into every pie. Meanwhile, minority agencies can expect to slice up any remaining crumbs on the kitchen floor. Bon appétit!

Cock-A-Doodle Bacon Pizza, Anyone? Pizza Hut Launches Biggest Menu Overhaul Yet

Ailing Chain Launches 10 New Crusts, Six New Sauces and 11 Specialty Pizzas

By Maureen Morrison

Your choices at Pizza Hut are about to go way beyond the Pepperoni Lovers pizza.

The chain is rolling out what it calls its biggest brand evolution ever, adding 10 crust flavors, four “flavor-packed drizzles,” 11 specialty recipes, six different sauces and Skinny Slice Pizzas to its menu.

The company is also overhauling its website, launching a new logo, packaging and even employee uniforms. The new products will be available Nov. 19 nationally, and the chain is expected to launch the biggest campaign in its history around the same time. It did not provide additional details, though the campaign will be called “Flavor of Now.”

New crust flavors include Honey Sriracha and Salted Pretzel, as well as others with odd titles like Get Curried Away and Ginger Boom Boom. Sauces include Premium Crushed Tomato and Buffalo. New “premium” ingredients include salami, fresh spinach and peruvian cherry peppers. Drizzles include balsamic.

The Skinny Slice Pizzas, made from a thinner version of Pizza Hut’s Hand-Tossed Crust, will all be 250 calories or less per slice. There are five options, including the Skinny Club, which includes creamy garlic parmesan sauce, ham, diced Roma tomatoes and spinach with a toasted Asiago crust flavor.

The new specialty pizzas mostly have pun-filled or otherwise wordy names, such as Giddy-Up BBQ Chicken, Buffalo State of Mind, Old-Fashioned Meatbrawl and Cock-A-Doodle Bacon.

The move comes as Pizza Hut is struggling to boost sales amid a protracted decline. It has logged eight consecutive quarters of comparable sales declines, while Yum Brands sibling company Taco Bell has been reporting positive results.

In a surprise move this summer, Pizza Hut moved its account from McGarryBowen to Interpublic’s Deutsch without a review.

The expanded line of products is just the latest change to its menu, as the chain looks to shift perceptions. It’s hoping consumers, particularly millennials, will view it as offering more sophisticated fare. U.S. CMO Carrie Walsh told Ad Age earlier this year that Pizza Hut is responding to research that found consumers are increasingly seeking gourmet, higher quality food with unconventional flavor combinations.

The company started in January with its hand-tossed pizza, touted as having a “lighter, airier crust, cheese blended with five Italian flavors and now brushed with garlic-buttery goodness.” It even included imperfections to give it an air of authenticity. Pizza Hut also introduced garlic-parmesan pizzas (a five-cheese and a chicken-bacon-tomato variety) and three barbecue pizzas promoted by country singer and TV personality Blake Shelton.

“Pizza Hut has been defining what’s possible with pizza since 1958 and our newest changes are the most significant we’ve made in our history as we once again look to take the entire category to another level,” said David Gibbs, CEO of Pizza Hut, in a statement. “We are radically reinventing the pizza category with a menu transformation that more than doubles our amount of ingredients and flavors, a world-class digital ordering experience and an entirely new look and feel to our brand, all the way down to our uniforms.”

11758: Peezza Hut.

From USA TODAY…

Pizza Hut ‘embarrassed’ over peeing video

By Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY

Here’s an extra special ingredient that no one wants on their pizza: pee.

But one Pizza Hut in Kermit, West Va., seems to have come a bit too close to almost serving up a taste of that.

Red-faced Pizza Hut officials are fumbling to explain the video of a Pizza Hut district manager — make that, former district manager — who local TV station WOWK-TV caught urinating in the very same sink that the store also uses to wash utensils.

And, no, the manager was not removing an extra-tough stain. In the video, the former manager actually undoes his pants and relieves himself.

“First of all, we are embarrassed by the actions of this individual,” says Pizza Hut, in a statement. “Pizza Hut has zero tolerance for violations of our operating standards, and the local owner of the restaurant took immediate action and terminated the employee involved.”

The incident, which occurred during non-business hours, did not include any food tampering, says Pizza Hut in its statement. “We follow strict safety and handling procedures and the restaurant has since been closed. We apologize to our customers of Kermit, West Virginia, and those in our system who have been let down by this situation.”

To be sure, fast-food employees doing gross things at work is hardly unique to Pizza Hut. Back in 2009, a video went viral of a Domino’s employee picking his nose and placing his findings in the food he’s making. Last year, a video also went viral of a Taco Bell employee licking a long stack of taco shells. That was quickly followed by a viral image of a Wendy’s employee drinking directly out of a Frosty machine. Is this silly-but-sick stuff contagious in the fast-food world?”

No, says public relations guru Peter Himler. “It may be that local media tends to gravitate to this kind of sensationalistic story involving big-named fast food establishments,” he says. Even then, he adds, Pizza Hut needs “to make a forceful case that this is an isolated incident that does not reflect on the company’s culture or workplace procedures.”

The store was closed on Tuesday and will not reopen until it has been completely sanitized and received a clean bill of health from the health department, says spokesman Doug Terfehr.

But like all of the other fast-food incidents, this one, too, will quickly fade, says Himler. “I doubt this will have a long-term negative affect on Pizza Hut’s reputation,” he says. “Blaring headlines today usually fade quickly into the rear view mirror by tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, some folks in Kermit have to be wondering, the next time they order from the local Pizza Hut, do they have to remind whoever answers to phone to, well, hold the pee?

11432: Don’t Play With Your Food.

Pizza Hut Canada presents this contrived Dip Hop commercial combining lame hip hop with unappetizing food shots to create a net impression that’s nauseating on every level imaginable.

11362: Pizza Hut Pitch Prejudiced…?

Adweek reported Pizza Hut has narrowed its search for a new creative advertising agency to four competitors: mcgarrybowen, Mullen, Havas and The Martin Agency. Wow, “creative advertising agency” becomes an oxymoron of sorts when used in reference to that quartet of hackneyed firms. Then again, Pizza Hut is hardly a breakthrough brand these days. Yet it also begs the question as to why any minority shops weren’t considered in the pitch. After all, here’s what Pizza Hut claims on its website:

For us, diversity is a way of life and a way of doing business. Everyone can and does make a difference in our organization. One of our “How We Win Together” principles — Believe in all People — underscores the importance of actively seeking diversity in others; believing everyone has the potential to make a difference; and coaching and supporting every individual to grow to their full capacity. This adds perspective and depth to everything we do. We’ve also found that a diverse team makes for better problem solvers, services all our customers more effectively, and creates a richer culture for all of us to enjoy.

So why does such a forward-thinking and inclusive enterprise want to partner with White advertising agencies where exclusivity is a featured item on the menu? It’s time for Pizza Hut to deliver on its alleged commitment to diversity.

Pizza Hut Cuts to Final 4 in Creative Review

Presentations are scheduled for next month

By Andrew McMains

Four agencies remain standing after a cut in Pizza Hut’s creative review.

Sources identified the shops as mcgarrybowen, Mullen, Havas Worldwide and the incumbent, The Martin Agency. Final presentations are slated for next month.

The latest cut came after Pizza Hut executives met with a half-dozen agencies. The other shops were Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Saatchi & Saatchi, according to sources.

Pizza Hut, which spends about $245 million in media annually, launched its review in June. Select Resources International in Santa Monica, Calif. is managing the process.

Media planning and buying are not in play and remain at Publicis Groupe’s Optimedia. Martin has handled the creative account since late 2009, when the Interpublic Group shop replaced longtime lead agency BBDO.

11224: Exclusive Pizza Party.

Advertising Age reported Pizza Hut has launched a review for its creative business. The Martin Agency—part of IPG—will defend as the incumbent. Pizza Hut declined to reveal the other contenders and whether a search consultant will be used. Gee, it’s hard to guess which IPG shops may be involved. Perhaps Omnicom will enter the fray too. It’s a Corporate Cultural Collusion competition. May the best White man win.

Pizza Hut Launches Creative Review

Incumbent Martin Agency Says It Will Defend Business

By Maureen Morrison

Yum brands’ Pizza Hut has launched a review for its creative account.

The business has been with Interpublic’s Martin Agency since 2009, when the shop succeeded longtime incumbent, Omnicom’s BBDO. Martin said that it was defending the account but referred all other questions to Pizza Hut.

“Pizza Hut is continually looking at fresh ways to enhance its marketing efforts and strengthen relationships and points of engagement with pizza lovers. As a result, we are conducting an advertising agency review,” said the marketer, noting, “We are thankful for the commitment The Martin Agency has made to our business over the past 3 ½ years and have invited them to participate in the review process.”

Pizza Hut declined to disclose participating agencies and whether a search consultant was involved.

Pizza Hut’s media agency, Publicis Groupe’s Optimedia, is unaffected by the search.

Among parent company Yum Brands’ chains, Taco Bell and KFC, Pizza Hut is the third-largest measured media spender, according to Kantar Media. In 2012, Pizza Hut spent about $240 million on U.S. measured media, while KFC spent about $263.5 million and Taco Bell spent about $280 million.

11205: IPG Slices Up The Pizza Pie.

Advertising Age reported Chicago startup agency O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul picked up business from Pizza Hut—sans a review. It must be noted that principal Tom O’Keefe is a former leader of Draftfcb with strong ties to Pizza Hut parent Yum! The current lead AOR for Pizza Hut is The Martin Agency. Draftfcb and The Martin Agency are sister shops under IPG, the holding company that is also backing O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul. In other words, it appears to be another case of Corporate Cultural Collusion, whereby IPG is mimicking the Omnicom tactic of exclusively offering a portfolio of White agencies to major clients. It’s no surprise that Yum! brands used to be part of PepsiCo—which engages in Corporate Cultural Collusion with Omnicom—and Yum! still has a lifetime contract to serve PepsiCo beverages in its restaurants. In short, IPG is hoarding the entire pizza pie while minority shops are left to scratch for any leftover crumbs or mozzarella cheese.

O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul Nabs Pizza Hut’s WingStreet

Agency’s execs have strong ties to parent Yum Brands

By Maureen Morrison

Fledgling Chicago agency O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul has made its way onto Pizza Hut's agency roster, picking up the creative account for Pizza Hut’s WingStreet brand.

O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul will handle marketing and advertising for WingStreet, PizzaHut’s chicken-wing brand launched in 2003. A spokesman for Yum Brands’ Pizza Hut said the agency “will be providing support for WingStreet as we continue to grow the brand.” Pizza Hut last year spent about $239 million on measured media, but less than $2 million was allocated to WingStreet, according to Kantar Media.

Pizza Hut’s lead shop is Interpublic’s Martin Agency, which handled the WingStreet business. The Pizza Hut spokesman said “Martin handled all creative work for us, including WingStreet, and they will continue to support our core business.” Martin did not comment.

The account was moved without a review to O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul, which has ties to parent company Yum Brands through Tom O’Keefe’s earlier tenure at DraftFCB as chief creative. There he played a key role in the agency’s relationship with Yum, particularly Taco Bell. Nick Paul also was at DraftFCB for an extended period, most recently serving as the agency’s global chief growth officer. O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul opened its doors in March with backing by Interpublic.

When the agency opened, Mr. Paul said that the agency would like to work with Yum. “Our relationship with Yum means a lot to us, and we have loved working on Taco Bell over the past 12-plus years…we’d be thrilled to play a part in putting together work for the brand,” he said at the time.

10606: Political Product Placement Pizza.

From The Chicago Tribune…

Pizza Hut stunt a pie in the face of debate decorum?

Reuters

During the next presidential debate, the candidates will be pondering the important questions of our time. But the most controversial may be “Sausage or pepperoni?”

Pizza Hut is offering a lifetime of free pizza—one large pie a week for 30 years—or a check for $15,600 to anyone who poses the question to either President Barack Obama or Republican candidate Mitt Romney during the live Town Hall-style debate next Tuesday.

The proposed stunt, which the pizza chain announced Tuesday, threatens to tick off millions of viewers who are expected to tune in to the debate to hear what the candidates have to say about the economy, health care and other serious concerns facing this country.

“It’s a terrible waste of time for the presidential candidates, the people who organize the debate and everyone who wants to listen,” said Mickey Sheridan, a 43-year-old bartender from Queens, N.Y., who is a Pizza Hut fan. “They should find some other way to advertise.”

Pizza Hut’s move comes as marketers continue to look for new ways to engage TV audiences that increasingly are resistant to their traditional commercials. It’s also happening at a time when Americans are paying closer attention to presidential debates. On Oct. 3, an estimated 67.2 million people watched the first debate between Obama and Romney, the largest TV audience for a presidential debate since 1992, according to Nielsen’s ratings service.

It’s not the first time a question that could be seen as frivolous has been asked of a president or candidate during a live, televised events. One of the most famous moments in TV history came during a 1994 MTV Town Hall when an audience member asked then-President Bill Clinton whether he wore “Boxers or briefs?” Clinton’s sheepish response, “Usually briefs,” became an indelible moment in pop culture.

But such moments don’t always end well. During Obama’s 2009 State of the Union address, for instance, South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson yelled out “You lie, you lie.” Wilson quickly apologized but was widely criticized by members of both parties for the breach of decorum.

“I think people are frustrated with the political process, but they don’t want it to become a zoo,” said Allen Adamson, managing director of branding firm Landor Associates in New York.

It can be even more difficult for marketers to get away with such outbursts. While companies long have used hot political topics to gain publicity for their brands, it can backfire. For example, there was backlash in February 2011 when Kenneth Cole compared the Arab Spring uprisings to a frenzy over the U.S. designer’s spring collection. The company later apologized.

“Context really matters,” said Deborah Mitchell, clinical professor of marketing at Ohio State University. “Political satire is fine if it’s in the context of where people are expecting it. When context is violated that’s when you run into trouble.”

Even if Pizza Hut’s stunt doesn’t turn off viewers, Laura Ries, president of Atlanta-based brand strategy firm Ries and Ries, said it still will likely fail. That’s because it does not substantially connect back to the Pizza Hut brand.

“The problem is that it’s too contrived; it’s completely made up,” she said. “For something to move past silly gimmick and become more successful brand connection, it does have to have some sort of relevance.”

To its critics, Pizza Hut, a unit of Louisville, Ky.-based Yum Brands Inc., said there is room for both serious and lighthearted questions in the debate, which will be broadcast on most network and cable news stations.

“We know there are a lot of serious topics that are going to be debated and need to be debated,” Pizza Hut spokesman Doug Terfehr said.

But Terfehr said the pizza chain, which operates 10,000 restaurants in 90 countries, saw this as a way to ask an “everyday question” that people can relate to. “Pizza seems to be a question everyone understands.”

John Dunn, 51, a manager of a data center from North Carolina, said Pizza Hut’s question is one that should not be asked during the presidential debate. “This election means a lot to me,” he said. “I’d rather ask them a more important question if I actually had the opportunity to ask a presidential candidate a question.”

To be sure, because of rules governing the debate, Pizza’s Hut stunt may not even be possible. The first Town Hall-style presidential debate was in 1992 and there were not many rules, which made for a lively debate, says Alan Schroeder, a professor of journalism at Northeastern University and author of “Presidential Debates: 50 Years of High-Risk TV.”

But since then, campaigns have added many restrictions in their negotiations in the way audience members can ask questions. The terms for this year haven’t been made public, but in the past, Schroeder notes that audience members have had to arrive early and write out their questions on notecards, with the moderator selecting among the questions that got the green light.

Even if someone attempts to ask the “Sausage or pepperoni?” question, it’s likely they would get immediately shut down. That’s because in 2004, campaigns negotiated a rule that an audience member’s microphone would be cut off if they start to veer from pre-determined questions.

In any case, Schroeder, the journalism professor, said he doesn’t think anyone who makes it into the debate audience will dare pose the question to the candidates.

“It’s so unseemly, for a lifetime of free pizzas, to make a fool out of themselves in front of millions of people,” he said. “They’d have to give a partial ownership of the company for that.”

9758: Super Bowl XLVI—Pizza Hut.

This Pizza Hut Contest Winner deserved to run on the Super Bowl? Really?!

Essay 4913

Time for a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Looks like it might be Hammer Time after all. Stanley Burrell—a.k.a. MC Hammer—is launching a Web site called DanceJam.com. The site will let visitors share and watch dance videos. Burrell will act as co-founder and chief strategy officer. “There is no high-tech lingo or business strategy that you can talk that is above my head,” said Burrell. “I breathe this stuff.” He’s too legit to quit.

• The New York KFC restaurant that gained notoriety when a video showed rats scurrying about the place has been replaced by a T-Mobile store. No word if customers can add a rodent to their Fave 5.

• Supporters of presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich are pissed off at Pizza Hut for a commercial that includes the Democrat making a comment about UFOs. Kucinich received unwanted publicity when he revealed he once saw a UFO. “I am going to encourage all Kucinich supporters to boycott your restaurant until you change your ‘debate’ advertising,” wrote an online supporter. “That was a low blow to a viable, electable presidential candidate. Consider the word OUT! I also think Pizza Hut should publicly apologize to the Congressman!” Anyone who believes Kucinich is an electable candidate must be from another planet.