http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/business/media/in-overhaul-pizza-hut-tries-adventurous-menu-offerings-and-a-dash-of-irreverence.html 2014-11-19 02:16:43 In Overhaul, Pizza Hut Tries Adventurous Menu Offerings and a Dash of Irreverence America’s largest pizza seller is confronting sagging sales by overhauling its 56-year-old brand with revamped recipes, a new catchphrase and a series of cheeky television spots. === MUCH is at stake as The goal of the campaign — the first work by Pizza Hut’s new creative agency, To assure skeptics that the changes are more than cosmetic, the campaign promises more menu variety than ever: six new sauces, 10 new crust flavors and 11 new pizza recipes. Sorry, no pizza in a pear tree, although The campaign includes commercials on television, on radio and online; a presence on social media like Pizza Hut is confronting daunting challenges in a competitive category. Although Pizza Hut is by far the largest American pizza seller, it has suffered eight quarters in a row of comparable sales declines as smaller rivals like Domino’s and Papa John’s gain market share. Almost five years ago, Domino’s Domino’s executives “worked hard on their turnaround,” said Carrie Walsh, chief marketing officer of Pizza Hut, in Dallas. She characterized what Pizza Hut was undertaking as nothing less than “reinventing the pizza category” with initiatives created after a year of consumer research. Although “we’ll still have all the traditional pizzas,” Ms. Walsh said, “a desire for more flavor and more adventure” inspired the sweeping makeover. Pizza Hut also sought more flavor in its advertising, deciding in July The “The work for Taco Bell got us an intro through Yum Brands to Pizza Hut,” said Pete Favat, chief creative officer of Deutsch L.A., and the work for Pizza Hut, like that of its sibling, is “tongue-in-cheek, to make a point.” In the Pizza Hut ads, the point, Mr. Favat said, is that the “re-evaluation of the brand” will provide pizza lovers with the choices they want, which is demonstrated through humorous commercials, narrated by the comedian Rob Corddry, with a theme of clashing cultures. “We went to Italy to get the opinion of the experts” about the new Pizza Hut menu, Mr. Corddry says in one spot, to demonstrate how Pizza Hut is “taking pizza where it’s never been before.” According to Mr. Favat, the commercials were filmed in Sorrento, Italy, and feature ordinary people, not actors, responding to the new offerings, which in addition to the Peruvian cherry peppers include salted pretzel and honey sriracha crusts. The punch line is that the Italians don’t like what Pizza Hut has done — but then again, they “don’t like change,” the commercials inform viewers, adding, “Change can be scary, but it’s also delicious.” Ads that knock a sponsor’s products are unusual. But Mr. Favat explained: “I think the best work in our industry has some tension in it. Without tension, no one pays attention. I grew up in an Italian family, community, in New Jersey, and there are traditional values to the food, to the way Italians see things, and Pizza Hut has all these exciting flavor combinations that go against traditional pizza values.” Erich Joachimsthaler, chief executive of the Vivaldi Partners Group, a marketing agency in New York, called the Pizza Hut changes “a very gutsy rebranding” but wondered “whether this all-out effort is necessary to get the business on track.” Pizza Hut “is adopting the successful principles of fast-casual restaurants like Chipotle,” particularly variety and choice, Mr. Joachimsthaler said. “I’m not sure whether those principles work in the pizza category.” Pizza Hut spent $118.6 million on advertising in the first six months of the year, according to the Kantar Media unit of WPP, compared with $131.1 million in the same period last year. For all of 2013, Kantar Media reported, ad spending totaled $247.4 million, compared with $239.1 million in 2012. Although Pizza Hut declined to provide numbers for the budget of the new campaign, Ms. Walsh said, “it is far and away our biggest advertising and marketing initiative.” She added, “I see us talking about flavor for a long time coming.”