Pizza Hut is an international icon and the largest pizza company in the world. But, after a steady decline over 8 successive quarters, and customer perceptions of the brand as outdated, too corporate and “stuck in the 80s”, it was time for the brand to shake things up.

It started with the largest menu overhaul in Pizza Hut’s history. And with a change that big, we needed a campaign that would drive immediate and significant reappraisal of the brand. Pizza Hut needed to go from stodgy and old-fashioned to dynamic, innovative and progressive. This was even more important for Millennials (18-34) who grew up eating at the restaurants, but haven't seen anything new from the brand in years.

We rebranded Pizza Hut top to bottom, starting with a new logo that referenced the classic “marinara” sauce swirl, but added dynamism and a nod to our craft.

When Pizza Hut completely overhauled their menu with all new, non-traditional takes on pizza, we went to Italy to get real, old Italians to tell us what they thought. We found these people in their homes, at their jobs, and on the street. One of them we even found sitting in his horse and buggy just days before shooting. They came from all over the country, and none of them had any prior acting experience. One of them had even been making pizzas in his own pizzeria for over fifty years. All of them had strong opinions on what does and does not make a good pizza. In the end, they refused to recognize Pizza Hut’s new pizzas as pizza at all.

At launch we saw a significant spike in the percentage of 18-34 visitors, becoming our highest represented age-group. Our social traffic soared; Instagram engagement jumped 63%, Twitter click-through increased 303%, YouTube engagement rose 3,451% and Facebook engagement actions increased by 92,000.

And, in the first month, we saw purchase intent up 10%, quality perceptions rise 18% and overall positive buzz increase 25% amongst our core 18-34yo target. The brand ceased to be seen as a stodgy, old fashioned pizza chain and evolved into a 21st century pizza innovation specialist.