Pizza Hut is using digital media to promote its tie up with this Summer’s blockbuster cinema release, ‘The A Team’ from Twentieth Century Fox.
Independent digital agency, Blue Barracuda, has produced a microsite, Facebook game and online marketing campaign to promote the partnership, encourage film fans to engage with the Pizza Hut brand, and drive orders for delivery.
The campaign will promote four new pizzas from Pizza Hut: the ‘Cheesy Faceman Pizza’, the ‘Howling Mad Veggie Pizza’, the ‘B.A. Meat Machine Pizza’ and the ‘Hannibal Hot Pizza’.
‘The A Team’ is based on the American action adventure television series about a fictional group of former U.S. Special Forces who are accused of a ‘crime they didn’t commit.’
This prompts them to go on the run and work as ‘soldiers of fortune.’ Directed by Tony and Ridley Scott, the action flick stars Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Sharlto Copley in the titular roles and Jessica Biel as the love interest.
The game uses a pixel art illustration and animation, and is built on the established platform Blue Barracuda created for the last Pizza Hut Facebook game, Pass it around pizza. It features the same team pizza-sharing mechanic with branded content associated with the film and a Pizza Hut look and feel.
Players have to beat off the American army and collect pizza slices from the new pizza range, which are then posted to their Facebook wall, enabling them to enter a draw to win prizes including an active holiday to Turkey for four and an ‘A Team’ action day with three friends.
Players’ Facebook friends can click on Facebook pizza slices to participate in the game, designed to appeal to men and women of all ages. Sharing pizzas with Facebook friends increases the chances of winning. Participants also receive a voucher code for money off Pizza Hut deliveries.
Blue Barracuda will promote the game with social media, and an online advertising campaign, planned on media including Bauer’s Kiss, Facebook and ExchangeLabs, integrated with a radio advertising campaign booked by Starcom.
The advertising will be time and geo-targeted and visitors will be retargeted with messaging designed to encourage them to return to the game and to place an order for pizza delivery, supported by email, SMS activity and affiliate marketing.
The creative, in five formats, features assets from the film and the game characters with the strapline, ‘Hungry for action? Introducing a brand new ‘A Team’ of pizzas.’ Viewers can clickthrough to play the game, connect with friends on Facebook, become a Facebook Fan and place an order for delivery or collection from Pizza Hut.
Commenting on the activity, Murray Willows, Chief Marketing Officer at Pizza Hut explains, ‘We have created a range of new pizzas to promote our partnership with this Summer’s blockbuster action film, ‘The A Team’ and the game is the perfect way to engage consumers. We liked the retro design of the last game Blue Barracuda created, the football-themed Pass it around pizza, which was incredibly successful, generating over a quarter of a million plays and counting. The ‘Hungry for Action’ game will extend the association with the film beyond the campaign window to continue driving brand engagement through the social channel. We use Facebook to interact with our consumers as 92% of our Pizza Hut customers are active Facebook users.”
