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Behind the Work in association withThe Immortal Awards
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How Pizza Pizza Used Valentine’s Day to Celebrate Singles

22/02/2023
Advertising Agency
Toronto, Canada
217
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The team from Zulu Alpha Kilo and Pizza Pizza’s Amber Winters on why the restaurant chain gave away free slices on February 14th, and what it took to make that happen, writes LBB’s Josh Neufeldt

It’s no secret that many brands and restaurants spent Valentine’s day 2023 promoting campaigns geared towards couples. After all, encouraging love on February 14th just makes sense. 

But, as Canadian chain Pizza Pizza realised, there’s more than one kind of love. Working in partnership with creative agency partner Zulu Alpha Kilo, the two launched the ‘Singles for Singles’ program, a celebration of those without dates, and a chance to show some love to the Canadians without romantic partners. ‘How?’, you might ask? On the big day, anyone single was invited to visit any of five select restaurant locations across the country, from which they were able to claim a free slice of cheese or pepperoni pizza. 

Serving as an extension of Pizza Pizza’s ‘Everyone Deserves Pizza’ platform, this first of a kind initiative was further supported by the restaurant’s decision to also go single for the day - changing its name from ‘Pizza Pizza’ to ‘Pizza’, just for the day. 

LBB’s Josh Neufeldt sat down with the Zulu Alpha Kilo (ZAK) team of CCO Brian Murray, CD/writer Jonah Flynn, and CD/art director Michael Siegers, along with Pizza Pizza marketing director Amber Winters, discussing how this campaign came to pass, how it fits into the chain’s plans for 2023, and naturally, how many slices got given away on the big day. 



LBB> Doing a Valentine’s Day campaign with Pizza Pizza is super fun! As such, what was the brief, and what immediate ideas came to mind?


Amber> Valentine’s Day has historically been a busy day for us. For years, tens of thousands of customers have chosen us on February 14th, in particular, for our ‘heart pizzas’, where a portion of the proceeds are donated to the Slices for Smiles Foundation supporting local children’s hospitals. Needless to say, typically, the ‘heart pizza’ was favoured amongst couples and families.

This year, we thought Valentine’s Day might be a fun time to elaborate on our new brand positioning, ‘Everyone Deserves Pizza’, and perhaps find ways to connect with single people who are otherwise less-so in the spotlight on this day.

ZAK> Over the past year, we’ve been looking for new ways to support our ‘Everyone Deserves Pizza’ campaign. The original brief was actually to create a pizza-themed Snapchat lens for Valentine’s Day. In the process of tackling that brief, the team came up with ‘Singles for Singles’ as a bonus idea. There was so much enthusiasm for it, we wound up producing both. 



LBB> How did the idea of ‘Singles for Singles’ come to pass? Was it a matter of building off the ‘Everyone Deserves Pizza’ platform and realising this was a great option, or was the goal always to target single people from the beginning?


ZAK> We take every creative brief as a potential opportunity to build on the ‘Everyone Deserves Pizza’ platform. We try to think of ways we can use pizza to show love to different groups, especially during times they could really use it. For example, we launched ‘Fixed-Rate Pizza’ to show love to people currently feeling crunched by inflation. As such, on Valentine’s Day - where couples are showering each other with love - it felt truer to our values to show some love to a more unexpected group: singles. 

In terms of the idea itself, while brainstorming for the Snapchat lens, the creative team (copywriter Shelagh Moore and art director Samantha Lee) had experimented with ideas where pizzas would ‘split up’ or ‘go single’ by cutting them in half. In turn, this also led to the notion of Pizza Pizza going single by cutting their double name in half - from ‘Pizza Pizza’ to just ‘Pizza’. 



LBB> The spot really emphasises the temporary renaming idea. Why was a simple display of pulling a curtain over the word ‘Pizza’ the right creative approach for the occasion? 


ZAK> This was one of those situations where logistical limitations forced us to get even more creative. We initially wanted to remove the first ‘Pizza’ entirely off the sign, but we quickly realised that would require the destruction of the entire sign. Then we discussed vinyl stickers to cover the first ‘Pizza’, but that would have taken too long to apply during a 15-second shot. Ultimately, a curtain felt like the quickest way to cover it in as few seconds as possible, but it was also funnier and more dramatic than any other solution we’d considered. 



LBB> On a practical level, where did you shoot, and how did you achieve the curtain shot?


ZAK> We shot at one of the participating Pizza Pizza locations in Etobicoke, just outside of Toronto, Ontario. With some help from the franchisee, we had a contractor rig the curtain to the sign. It was actually a couple weeks before Valentine’s Day, and it was freezing cold and windy outside. But luckily, we were able to get a take where the wind wasn’t blowing the curtain all over the place.



LBB> The music for the spot is also great! How did this aspect come to life?


ZAK> The first track we tried was this grandiose orchestral thing, in the vein of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’. It was funny… but also wrong. We then tried a few other genres and styles. A close runner-up was a flamenco guitar track, but ultimately, the fun romantic bossa nova-esque track won out.



LBB> This campaign saw the giveaway of pizza at five select locations. Which ones did you choose, and what made those locations the best choices for the big day?


Amber> We started with urban markets such as Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and Winnipeg. Then, within those cities, we selected restaurants where there was a higher proportion of younger (and potentially) single customers. For example, Robson Street in Vancouver, or at the intersection of Bloor and Bathurst in Toronto. 

Additionally, we noticed that customers in cities where this wasn’t held - such as Ottawa - expressed their disappointment at not being involved. Good to know for the future! 



LBB> What challenges did you face during this project? How did you overcome them?


ZAK> As mentioned, covering the first ‘Pizza’ and trying to work around the weather were the two biggest challenges. That’s about it. We were fortunate to have great clients and franchisees supporting us the whole way.

Amber> The logistics around covering the signage was probably the trickiest in this case. Since Valentine’s Day is a busy day for us, we wanted to ensure it was apparent that we were open for business that day, and it didn’t appear that we were closing or under renovation. It was also a short turnaround which had to be handled within 24 hours in the middle of winter, but we have great relationships with our signage vendors, and they were up for the challenge.



LBB> How have people reacted to this campaign? And how many slices did you end up giving away?


ZAK> We were really pleased with the reaction. Singles came in droves to claim their free slices. In some cases, groups of single friends came by the restaurants, owning and celebrating their singlehood together. Social engagement for the day more than tripled, and the campaign was covered by several news and marketing outlets. Pizza Pizza really felt the love given right back to them. It was a good ol’ Valentine’s lovefest. 

Amber> We had an incredible response! In 24 hours, we received over 7,000,000 impressions in earned media, social engagement - which was overwhelmingly positive - more than tripled, and in just a few hours, over 1,200 slices were redeemed by singles, which also drove app downloads. Beyond this, our sales were plus 50% for the day across the board. We were really happy we could achieve checking so many boxes as a result of this campaign.



LBB> How does this campaign fit into Pizza Pizza’s branding for 2023, and how does it develop the ‘Everyone Deserves Pizza’ platform?


Amber> We kicked off the year by featuring our ‘Fixed-Rate Pizza’ offer, which launched last year when we introduced the ‘Everyone Deserves Pizza’ platform across Canada. It was a way to ease the burden shared by the vast majority of us who have been impacted by inflation. 

Now, we’ve followed it up with this Valentine’s campaign, which was a really playful but tangible example to further showcase ‘Everyone Deserves Pizza’. We’ll definitely continue to leverage this platform as the year rolls on, so stay tuned!


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