This was no small challenge. The Olympics are a global event with enormous reach, so the conventional approach of a partnership would cost a pretty penny. But who has time for conventional? Instead, we came up with an alternative approach that would successfully tie the Pizza Hut brand to the Olympics in real time, without dropping the name at all. The more medals our Aussie Olympians won, the more pizza would be given away on social media. Needless to say, it worked. Pizzas for Podiums increased Pizza Hut sales by a whopping 52%, elevated brand consideration by 22% and more than doubled brand search. Pizza Hut’s head honcho and CEO, Phil Reed, said it was “the most successful social and digital campaign in Pizza Hut’s history”.
We needed to make a big statement to kick-start the conversation. But we also needed a big action to match our statement; an action that would see us giving away potentially 280,000 pizzas worth over $4.2 million. The Olympics gave us the vehicle to do this but as we couldn’t afford to partner with them, we had to inextricably link Pizza Hut, without ever saying their name. The idea was simple; the more medals we won, the more pizza we’d give away.
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