Pizza Hut Restaurants launched 9 September its viral campaign with brand ambassador and ‘Chief Customer Officer’ comedian Paddy McGuinness, with the first of a series of online sketches.
Injecting fun and passion
Paddy’s role at Pizza Hut Restaurants, which has 330 huts across the UK, is to help inject some fun and passion back into the brand through his use of comedy. Paddy has produced, scripted and starred in a series of viral clips that see him incorporating his catchphrases and famous ‘paddy-isms’ while playing himself as a David Brent-esque manager at Pizza Hut Restaurants HQ.
Part of new digitally focused marketing strategy
This year-long collaboration is part of Pizza Hut Restaurants’ ongoing investment in enhancing the experience of guests who eat at Pizza Hut Restaurants and engage with the brand. In addition, the decision to roll out Paddy’s involvement through online activity, rather than traditional TV advertising, is part of its new digitally focused marketing strategy. This is based on first-hand customer insight and reflects a move towards more innovative customer relationship management.
Kathryn Austin, Director of HR and Marketing at Pizza Hut Restaurants explains: “Our partnership with Paddy reflects a new chapter in Pizza Hut Restaurants’ digital approach and customer engagement. Our customer base no longer relies on television as a way of accessing information and prefers communicating with us in a digital environment. As a result, we’ve shaken up our marketing strategy and moved towards a multi-channel approach.
“It has been fantastic working with Paddy on our viral marketing and he’s a great fit for the brand; he has a genuine enthusiasm for our food and guest experience and the partnership has been completely collaborative. We look forward to working with him over the coming year.”
Paddy comments: “I’ve always been a Pizza Hut Restaurants customer and now I get to work with them which is great because it’s a brand I admire for both its fun personality and fresh thinking. They are really open to my crazy ideas and filming the videos was such a laugh. I’m really looking forward to see what everyone thinks.”
To view Paddy shaking things up in the Pizza Hut Restaurants head office, head over to YouTube