Insights & Ideas 

Pizza Pizza sales have been trending downwards for the last two years. With QSR category growth flat year-over-year, and the third-party delivery services such as Uber Eats creating massive disruption, we needed to find a way to stay competitive and increase sales.

A data-driven insight is only as good as the source with which it is derived. Enter Google search queries, where everybody tells the truth (according to economist and data scientist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz - who himself has worked for Google).

Merging intuition with Google Trends, a tool which analyzes the popularity of top search queries in Google Search across various regions and languages, we mined search behaviour to understand how Canadians are actually ordering pizzas. The data revealed two distinct ordering spikes: dinnertime traffic (5-7pm - our bread and butter) and a second surge in late-night traffic (10pm-1am.) This pattern repeated daily, with the highest volume observed on Friday and Saturday.

Pizza Pizza has always had a late-night business, but never specifically targeted this segment. This new data insight unlocked a new business opportunity.

Pizza Hut closes at 11:30 PM, leaving us to compete with Domino’s for this late-night pizza-hungry crowd. Data also revealed that searches for other QSR brands like McDonalds spike just after both pizza restaurants close at 2 AM. A late-night push in online advertising meant stealing major market share from the competition by getting in front of the customer first. All we needed was a way in.

A deeper look at the data found strong correlating search patterns during that same late night time period for... weed. No, really. 

Targeting the late-night audience by appealing to the cannabis crowd was our opportunity to not only capitalize on their ordering behavior, but to help us actually steal share of voice from other late night QSRs.

This data-driven insight opened an entirely new avenue of audiences for Pizza Pizza. Incorporating marijuana marketing into their previously squeaky-clean brand image was a bold move for the brand to take. But let’s be blunt, by tapping into a cultural trend with the recent legalization of cannabis in Canada, this insight was dope.

Media Execution

Enter the 4/20 special: a $4.20 pizza available on April 20th - the high holiday of our new late-night target. As the only QSR in Canada bidding on cannabis-related keywords, we launched a cheeky search campaign to spread the news of this special offer. To make an impact, we leveraged on-point ad copy like “Blaze through the weekend” and “Toke about a Dope Deal,” while also featuring a search ad with a 24-hour countdown clock to 4/20 to raise excitement.

Similar copy was also used on an organic Twitter post promoting the special, which earned triple the engagement than Pizza Pizza’s average social posts, and comments from online followers like "respect Pizza Pizza for tailoring to your clientele."

Results 

This small search execution used by Pizza Pizza to test out the new data-led insight resulted in enormous gains: 13,000 orders and a 30%+ increase in revenue from other promotional offers. We also snagged 1.2 earned media impressions, with articles in NarCity, MTL Blog, Daily Hive, Indie88, Barrie360, inbrampton.com, energy953radio.ca, 604now.com, and Nightlife.

Riding that high, we expanded this insight into a full digital program that grew our late-night share, delivering:

• +5% Increase in average order size
• A 63% improvement in ROAS
• A 41% decrease in cost per online order
• And most importantly, a 70% sales lift, helping Pizza Pizza hit their highest sales in 2 years

Leveraging these data-led insights maximized dormant revenue, proving it was high time we used data to rise above the competition.