It’s not that there’s anything wrong with “dads and dudes” as your core customer, but after awhile, a brand like Boston Pizza starts to wonder if there is something more, ya know?
That’s the way the marketing brain trust started to feel in early 2014. In a highly competitive category — with QSR and fast casual pushing up from below and premium casual brands like Earls squeezing from above — they wanted to find new space to grow the brand.
“We started to feel a little limited by the dads and dudes as our core segment,” said Alex Green, vice-president of marketing.
The result was a well-planned brand repositioning in 2015 using the tagline “We’ll make you a fan.” The strategy was to underscore the connection to sports so as not to alienate the dudes and dads while also presenting Boston Pizza as a more appealing option for moms, too. “A place where you can feel good about bringing your family,” said Jessica Lax, account director at Boston Pizza’s creative agency Taxi.
The campaign launched with an anthemic brand spot in February. “It was largely about celebrating the types of occasions for families and sports fans that we bring to life every day in our restaurants,” said Green.
That was quickly followed by “Heckler” about a young boy who likes sports but really likes trash-talking. Then, for the hockey playoffs, came “Puck Hog” about a guy who’d rather share wings with his teammates than the puck.
The quirky Boston Pizza humour that once brought us “rib-stained camo” T-shirts is still there, but now the jokes work for hockey/soccer/baseball dads and moms watching the game with their kids. “The stories are slightly absurd, never slice-of-life moments. That just wouldn’t be Boston Pizza,” said Lax.
Year-to-date same stores sales by the end of September were up 1.6% compared to 0.5% a year before. Green said the numbers would have been even stronger but, with a lot of stores in Alberta, the chain has been hit disproportionately hard by slumping oil.
But the real grand slam for Boston Pizza came in October, a few weeks after launching its “Trophy Model” TV spot. The ad was generating some buzz online so Boston Pizza moved budget toward activating its sponsorship of the red-hot Toronto Blue Jays during their playoff run.
A real-life Trophy Model took pictures with fans at Boston Pizza just outside the Blue Jays homefield, Rogers Centre, and a studio was used to shoot the model recreating big Jays’ moments—including Jose Bautista’s instant classic homerun and bat flip against the Texas Rangers on Oct. 14.
Then, when a video of a young Jays’ fan in the stands swinging an imaginary bat in near perfect unison with Bautista’s now legendary swat went viral, Boston Pizza acted quickly.
“Mini Bautista” was invited back down to Boston Pizza, presented with a trophy of his own, held a press conference just like the pros, and sent him back across the street and into the Rogers Centre for another game.
In a typical month, Boston Pizza counts about 3.2 million mentions in social, but that jumped to 16.4 million, said Green. And media impressions for the “mini-Bautista” press conference alone reached 13 million. Flip the bat Boston Pizza, it’s been a great year.
