Our task was to unveil our new brand ambassador in a way that cuts through the conventional use of celebrities in Hong Kong.

While all competitors spend fortune deploying ads to build connection between the ambassador and the brand. To cut through, we created an inseparable connection between the brand and celebrity, and to unveil the new brand ambassador in a way that could drive buzz and conversation.

“Face Pareidolia” – the phenomenon about spotting faces on random objects, has produced some of the most responded internet memes over years. Behavior neuroscientist suggested we are wired to pay attention to faces appear on random objects.

Building on the out-of-routine persona of Pizza Hut and Neo Yau, we announced the new brand ambassador with the use of the brand’s own brand asset – the pizza boxes, by featuring a curious image of cheese stains on the box lid that resembles a man’s face, and sparked off authentic discussion online.

Deploying ads to build connection between the ambassador, our strategy Is to cut through. We created an inseparable connection between the brand and celebrity, and to unveil the new brand ambassador in a way that could drive buzz and conversation.

Pizza Hut utilized its very own brand asset – the pizza boxes – to unveil and successfully built presence of the new brand ambassador by baking it into part of the food consumption experience with only HK$36,000 media budget spent. The unveiling was launched on Instagram and Facebook, the places our target audience of 25-34 years old spend most of their time on.

Our unveiling was very ‘in your face’, literally and figuratively – by delivering these pizza boxes with cheese stains inside the box lid that resemble a man’s face, drawing customers’ posting on social media on 21-22 July. As the buzz grew, the discussion of identifying the face eventually made a hot topic online.

To continue stirring up the conversation, we took this opportunity to fan the flames by having Neo to share this cheese-stained box face on his Instagram on 23 July which garnered over 36,000 likes and organic comments from different celebrities and young audiences laughing out loud.

Finally, we quickly unveiled Neo’s role as Pizza hut’s new brand ambassador with a new TVC of My Box with social content on 31 July.

The campaign drove +40% increase in sales growth for My Box, and +314% increase in fan growth on Pizza Hut’s Instagram, along with +92.5% increase in total organic reach and +147% increase in total organic engagement. The ambassador’s social post for the cheese-stained box face alone garnered over 36,000 likes and organic comments from different celebrities and young audiences. The idea inspired “Big Waster”, a local government social page, to create a derivative work; and it also brought the brand more supporters and less haters.