Boston Pizza has hatched a new kind of redneck in the marketing campaign for its new ribs: a “Ribneck.”
There isn’t a duck call or infant-sized tiara in sight, but TV spots for Boston Pizza’s new slow-roasted pork back ribs feature a family of homemade banjo-playing Ribnecks—complete with front yard couch—enthusing about the new menu item.
A related campaign features a 60-second online infomercial that addresses how messy eating ribs can be, and features T-shirts that come with a splattering of fake rib sauce all over them. Wearers of the “Rib Stain Camo” T-shirts can add their own real rib sauce stains without anyone noticing. They are being sold at RibStainCamo.com for $14.99, plus shipping and handling fees.
The infomercial, which went up recently on YouTube (and posted below), doesn’t make any Boston Pizza references, and is getting support via a social media campaign and an online media buy.
To connect the “Rib Stain Camo” infomercial with the Ribneck TV creative, a 15-second version of the original 30-second Ribneck spot will feature one of the characters sporting the “Rib Stain Camo” T-shirt. The #RibbinIsLivin hashtag is also shown in the campaigns.
In addition to the Ribnecks commercials, the creative includes a website, Ribbinislivin.com, and in-store POS.
The campaigns—both of which were created and produced by Taxi Canada—are an effort to both put a smile on consumers’ faces and let them know about the new ribs on the summer menu, said Boston Pizza International vice-president of marketing Alex Green, in a release.
The media strategy for the campaigns was executed by PHD, while High Road Communications handled PR.
The ribs are a key menu item on the summer feature menu at Boston Pizza, which has more than 350 restaurants in Canada. The menu is available until Aug. 18.
This isn’t the first time the brand has gotten cheeky with its campaigns. Boston Pizza put out a fake press release on April Fool’s Day saying it was going to replace all the buns from its menu with pizza dough options. It was a joke, but based on at least some truth: the chain subsequently released the Pizzaburger–a burger baked inside pizza dough–and an accompanying campaign.
