That's Amore! Crash Bandicoot Meets Stuffed Crust Pizza
Wednesday, March 1 2000
Published on AllBusiness.com
Uniting the world's largest pizza restaurant chain with the dominant brand in video game entertainment is an idea worth repeating. This year's objective, according to Rich Madison, director of national calendar at Pizza Hut, is to "drive traffic, which results in business and sales of Stuffed Crust." Pizza Hut regularly promotes the different pizzas available on its menu, but Madison says that Stuffed Crust Pizza was specifically chosen for the promotion with Sony because, "A fun celebration-type pizza fits very well with the holiday time period."
By teaming with Sony, Pizza Hut strongly linked Stuffed Crust Pizza with its target market — "kids to age 19 and their parents," according to Robin Clark, manager of national advertising for Pizza Hut. PlayStation is the dominant brand in video game entertainment, with a game console in more than one out of every five households in the United States. Likewise, Pizza Hut leads the $25 billion pizza industry with 22 percent of the market share.
1998 was the first year that the two industry giants entered into cooperative promotional efforts. The overwhelming success of the 1998 "Pizza-Powered PlayStation Giveaway" inspired both companies to re-enter into a partnership that will essentially double the previous year's efforts. Previously, the promotion offered one demo (game sampler) disk; in 1999 Pizza Hut and Sony added two extra weeks to the program and another disk to drive repeat purchases. They also changed the price structure and upped the prize to $500 thousand. The campaign kicked off with a Stuffed Crust Pizza launch for two weeks, then led into the promotion with Sony running Nov. 14 to Dec. 19.
Pizza Hut's creative team tailored the POP from a promotional brief that they were provided. "Our goal for the images on the POP was to stress appetite appeal first and then the promotion and fun," says Clark. Pictures of Stuffed Crust Pizza were incorporated into the design, but the creative team still needed to choose an image that conveyed "fun" to Pizza Hut consumers. The natural choice was Crash Bandicoot, a popular video game hero easily recognizable to the target market.
"We decided to use Crash in the advertising because he brings attitude to the game and the promotion," Clark says. "We actually used the actor that plays the character on television commercials and had him come in for photo shoots. Because we weren't restricted to the Crash Bandicoot in the game, it entitled us to really maximize on the fun nature of the character."
Once the design had been established, POP was created in several formats for 5,000 participating Pizza Hut stores. The elements included window clings (some exclusively promoting Stuffed Crust Pizza and some with Pizza Hut and Sony), two-sided banners, two-sided counter cards, place mats, table tents,
By teaming with Sony, Pizza Hut strongly linked Stuffed Crust Pizza with its target market — "kids to age 19 and their parents," according to Robin Clark, manager of national advertising for Pizza Hut. PlayStation is the dominant brand in video game entertainment, with a game console in more than one out of every five households in the United States. Likewise, Pizza Hut leads the $25 billion pizza industry with 22 percent of the market share.
1998 was the first year that the two industry giants entered into cooperative promotional efforts. The overwhelming success of the 1998 "Pizza-Powered PlayStation Giveaway" inspired both companies to re-enter into a partnership that will essentially double the previous year's efforts. Previously, the promotion offered one demo (game sampler) disk; in 1999 Pizza Hut and Sony added two extra weeks to the program and another disk to drive repeat purchases. They also changed the price structure and upped the prize to $500 thousand. The campaign kicked off with a Stuffed Crust Pizza launch for two weeks, then led into the promotion with Sony running Nov. 14 to Dec. 19.
Pizza Hut's creative team tailored the POP from a promotional brief that they were provided. "Our goal for the images on the POP was to stress appetite appeal first and then the promotion and fun," says Clark. Pictures of Stuffed Crust Pizza were incorporated into the design, but the creative team still needed to choose an image that conveyed "fun" to Pizza Hut consumers. The natural choice was Crash Bandicoot, a popular video game hero easily recognizable to the target market.
"We decided to use Crash in the advertising because he brings attitude to the game and the promotion," Clark says. "We actually used the actor that plays the character on television commercials and had him come in for photo shoots. Because we weren't restricted to the Crash Bandicoot in the game, it entitled us to really maximize on the fun nature of the character."
Once the design had been established, POP was created in several formats for 5,000 participating Pizza Hut stores. The elements included window clings (some exclusively promoting Stuffed Crust Pizza and some with Pizza Hut and Sony), two-sided banners, two-sided counter cards, place mats, table tents,