Pizza Hut was struggling to connect with ‘the lost generation’ of Gen-Zs, who knew us solely for our roof, font and, well, their 6th birthday party. Despite being a fondly remembered pizza pioneer, unlike our competitors we weren’t cutting through the cultural conversation anymore.
Cool or relevant today isn’t what we say – it’s what others say about us. And that got us thinking differently. Instead of starting with a blank page, we jumped on TikTok to see what pop culture was saying about pizza (and Pizza Hut) at that moment.
It wasn’t too long before we found our way in –
A fictional Pepperoni Hug Spot commercial generated by AI was taking the internet by storm, using elements that looked eerily similar to Pizza Hut – the iconic red roof, pan pizza, and even the Pizza Hut font.
We engaged our audience to answer the question “should we build this for real?” The answer was a resounding yes. We moved swiftly to re-brand our social pages to Pepperoni Hug Spot, we converted one of our Toronto locations into a Pepperoni Hug Spot complete with exterior/interior signage and employee shirts and caps, we developed new packaging for our fictional pizza turned real, and of course we created a limited-time Pepperoni Hug pizza itself to be available in-store.
When AI imitates Pizza Hut, Pizza Hut imitates AI. We tapped into AI and brought the brand to Gen-Z culture.
