Monday

"WE WANT VIRAL!" screams Pizza Hut

Another client screams for viral video and guess what, agencies happily oblidge. This new video from Pizza Hut did get 100,000 views in just over a weekend, however I've got to say that the positioning doesn't really work for me:

"Pizza Hut is so good we want to throw it in the face of small town Pizza shops all around the US. Who cares about the recession! Go corporate or die!"

Wouldn't this execution have been way better if the guy went into a Papa John's or Domino's? I mean, why the hell would you have gone into a mom and pop shop to have done something like this?

I don't know about you, but I bet the original concept was about 100x stronger than the execution.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If I was ever going to consider ordering Pizza Hut before I saw this video, I most certainly will not after seeing it. It's actually fairly repulsive.

While it might spread (be viral), I would guess that the underlying idea behind things being viral is that, at the end of the day, the bottom line (sales) are positively affected. I believe that 'viral' videos like this will (or at least, should) have the opposite effective.

This has really provoked me! And yes, that means that I'm going to write about it and hence spread the word even further along, but in this case I do not believe that all publicity is good publicity.

Bottom line, in my opinion- 'viral' without any connection to company goals (i.e. positive branding leading to increased sales) is useless and potentially harmful!

Anon said...

byaha! That was fun. The best was Shrek finally sitting down for a slice.

Unknown said...

Thanks Lauren, completely agree with your comments. It's true, most brands would be happy with press these days, positive or negative (have you seen the new Whopper Virgin's campaign as another example?)

That being said, I think this had the spirit of a funny video but totally missed the mark. It would have been better if they'd faked it and actually went to corporate chains. Although I would have loved to have seen these Mom&Pop pizza places run to the nearest Pizza Hut and "order in" from their own stores. Now that would be a great response.

Vince - glad you enjoyed! Again...all part of the conversation (although from your pic, you kind of look like the main guy...)