Debuts new tagline, strategic approach for restaurant chain

Pizza Hut’s first campaign from The Martin Agency centers on customer choice and a $10 promotion available only at “Your Pizza Hut.”

Three commercials breaking this Sunday on the CBS Super Bowl pre-game show feature customers talking about their pizza favorites and the great deals they get with “any pizza, any size, any crust and any topping” for $10. In one, a college student reveals why he loves his weekly study group: the price allows everyone to get the pizza they want. In another, a wife talks about how she no longer needs to settle. And in the third, a college student tells his parents that he doesn’t need money this week, thanks to the money he saved with Pizza Hut.

All participants relate their stories from inside a red room.

“The red room … helps us ground the ads visually and gives you a good, calm feeling that is a little break from other food advertising [that screams at you a lot],” says Andy Azula, creative director at The Martin Agency in Richmond, Va.

The stories are scripted, said Azula, but each has customer insights at their core. Each ad in the campaign will feature a “new little story that we all seem to have shared before,” said Azula.

The campaign, which shifts Pizza Hut’s message from “America’s favorite pizza” to the more personal “Your Pizza Hut,” also includes radio advertising.

The Martin Agency won the account in December following a shoot-out with Gotham in New York. Previously, Pizza Hut had worked with BBDO in New York for more than 20 years and had primarily relied on celebrity pitches in their advertising.

Pizza Hut spends $275 million annually on ads.