Now Pizza Hut Launches A Smart Viral Clip?
Now Pizza Hut is trying to go viral. Their smart but simple viral video clip seems to become a weapon of mass affection, with 250.000 clip views at YouTube in 10 days. See how Joey tries to get a pizza delivered, in a pizza store…
In “Kicked out of a Pizza Place,” made by Mediocre Films, a man visits mom-and-pop pizza parlors, has Pizza Hut delivered and is ejected. The film, posted on YouTube and MySpace on Wednesday, had gotten about 250.000 clip views on both sites within 10 days.
Pizza Hut worked through Zadby, a broker that connects marketers with viral-video producers. Zadby links marketers with producers based on the type of project and the number of views they’re looking for. Clients are issued refunds if they don’t get the audience promised, though Beau Brewer, general manager of Zadby, said they haven’t ever had to issue one.
| He declined to give Pizza Hut’s investment in the video, but said it was comparable to the $25,000 Wendy’s paid for its first viral effort.
“Kicked out of a Pizza Place” is one of three videos made to order for the pizza chain. Mr. Brewer said the other two have an additional 200.000 views between them. |
Source: AdvertisingAge
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I’m not a big fan. The video comes across as forced and fake, the brand message is unclear and I don’t like the fact they give small pizza places a slap in the face.
Poor effort, if you ask me.
I agree with Daan, but the video seems like it does the job of spreading word of mouth – if in no other way than getting people to try it themselves, which will probably mean more orders for Pizza Hut!
@ Daan and Jessica
I agree. It’s college humor and the last screen is lacking branding and a witty call to action: bigged missed opportunity here.
It’s by far not at the level of “whopper freakout” by Burger King!
Let’s reward them for the attempt. They could have chosen an expensive weak TVc as well! Hope they read your feedback, implement this in the next campaign.
Thanks for your feedback. Wisdom of crowds: together you make brands and agencies smarter, and that why we started this blog in the first place
Cheers
Igor
Had I not read your copy and known this was pizza hut, I might have thought it was Domino’s, because YouTube had an ad from Domino’s along the lower half of the video – interesting how the context can overwhelm the content!
I don’t get this video and frankly, it’s not even particularly entertaining. It comes across as contrived, sophomoric and mean-spirited — especially the “Shrek” remark that the smarmy “pranksters” make to one of the pizzeria owners.
I can’t see how this video could possibly enhance Pizza Hut’s brand image, since they come across as bullies in this clip. Picking on independent, small-business owners by disrespectfully sitting down in THEIR establishments and then ordering-in makes me want to never set foot in a Pizza Hut again.
This might have made a funny Tom Green bit once upon a time, but that would have been for true comedy purposes, and not a corporate sponsored attempt at creating a “viral” video at the expense of small-business owners just trying to make a living. Irony is, their pizza is probably better than the Hut’s.
If their goal was to make Pizza Hut look like the big, bad mega-pizza chain stepping on the little guys, they succeeded. Congratulations. Do they have an ADDY Award for “Best Video That Makes People Never Want to Do Business With You?”
I think this is just another example of how many marketers still don’t “get” how to do this stuff correctly and authentically. And the agency that did this for them should have known better as well.
A better approach would have been to come up with an interesting hook to get REAL Pizza Hut customers to shoot their own videos, instead of paying 25K to a company that has the word “Mediocre” in their name.
I’m sure right now someone at Pizza Hut or their agency is calling this a “success” because it got a bunch of marketing and PR hacks to “buzz” about it. Of course, not all buzz is good: just ask the people who produced “Wal-Marting Across America.”
D for concept, D for execution, C- for effort.
Excellent post Matt, could not agree more!
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