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Pizza Hut targets lucrative mobile customers with football video campaign

Pizza Hut debuted a social video series combining pizza delivery with football on a day that routinely sees the majority of orders come through mobile.

The campaign is called the Pizza Hut Combine and features pro-footballer and former Pizza Hut employee DeAngelo Williams training a hapless pizza delivery boy in a similar manner to the famous NFL Combine. The campaign?s mobile nature is notable considering the amount of mobile orders Pizza Hut receives every year on the Super Bowl.

"As a proud Pizza Hut alum, I know pro football players aren't the only ones working hard during the Big Game," said Mr. Williams. "Agility, balance and speed are important skills on the field and for pizza deliveries."

"These videos are a fun way to show the dedication Pizza Hut has to preparing its team members to provide the best customer experience during their busiest day of the year," he said.

Pizza Hut Combine
Many brands have used celebrity sponsors to help sell their products and consumers can be forgiven for thinking that oftentimes the celebrity in question is most likely only there for the paycheck.

But few brands can boast a real relationships with their sponsor the way that Pizza Hut is doing with DeAngelo Williams. Not only is the Steelers running back a pro athlete, he is also a former employee of Pizza Hut.

DeAngelo Williams is a former Pizza Hut employee himself

The pizza chain is taking advantage of that relationship with a new social video campaign centered on DeAngelo Williams returning to Pizza Hut to help train employees to be prepared for the Super Bowl.

The videos take the form of a Pizza Hut Combine, a take on the famous (or infamous) NFL Combine ? a brutal training regimen that prospective NFL players go through before they are drafted.

In the series, Mr. Williams coaches a Pizza Hut employee in exercises that combine football-like drills with pizza-delivering skills.

The video series will be hosted on the brand?s Facebook page as well as on YouTube.

Driving mobile orders
Pizza Hut is banking on a mobile-heavy campaign as it aimed to get customers excited for ordering pizza on the day of the Super Bowl.

Pizza Hut regularly sees more than 50 percent of all orders come through digital channels on game day, many of which come from mobile or social channels.

The Pizza Hut Combine is a comedic take on the infamous NFL Combine

Pizza Hut has made making those digital orders even easier in the last year, unveiling its own chatbot ordering system to rival the ones provided by competitors such as Domino?s (see story).

Now that the Super Bowl is over, time will tell if Pizza Hut made good on its intention to top last year?s campaign (see story).

The social video series is just another attempt to drum up attention for the brand among mobile users to ensure that the number of mobile orders each year continues to rise.

"No one works harder on the day of the big game than our team members and delivery drivers," said David Daniels, Vice President of Media and Advertising for Pizza Hut. "We love that DeAngelo is back with us to have some fun and help coach our rookies on how to best succeed with fast and accurate service during our busiest day of the year."