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Move over John Ratzenberger and Howie Mandel, Boston Pizza’s latest spokesperson is a loveable seven-foot tall Sasquatch named Louie.
Teaser ads ran in national newspapers across Canada last week with a picture of a T-Shirt with a “made in Canada XXXL” on the label and “our new spokesperson arrives March 26 talldarkandhungry.com.” The website is actually a blog by Tribal DDB where Louie talks about the trials and tribulations of his first job. The first of four television spots launched Monday, which Louie mentioned on his blog: “Me first TV commercial on tonight! Me talk about ribs, pizza, sports bar! Make commercial was tough. Long shoot day. Director want me do take over and over. Me say lines, then him say ‘That perfect, Louie! Do once more like that!’ But me say, ‘If that perfect, why do again?’ ”
“We’ve always had a bit of a legacy with spokespeople, but having a spokes-character is a little bit different for us,” says Joanne Forrester, vice-president marketing. “Although our previous spokespeople were great for us, we just found that over time that it became about them and not about the Boston Pizza brand offering.”
Boston Pizza has two distinct target markets—families with young children and 19- to 40-year-olds who typically head straight for the sports bar. The ads should appeal to both groups,” says Forrester.
The campaign by DDB Canada includes print, online and radio in April. Last June, DDB created television spots that for the first time moved away from a spokesperson, and showed families in odd situations. Forrester says the ads were well liked and scored well with the late teen crowd, but were not as high as they would have liked.
“We felt for us to showcase the Boston Pizza experience we really needed to shoot the commercials all in the restaurants and really focus on the core offering of Boston Pizza.”
Alan Russell, chief creative officer, says the new ads reinforce the “You’re among friends” tag line, while also providing a creative device to have some fun and be memorable.
“The problem with spokespeople is some people love them, some people hate them and anything can happen. They can end up in a drunk tank or whatever, you don’t have that control over them,” says Russell. “We felt that this Sasquatch creature was iconic of Canada and something that people hadn’t used in this way.”
Toronto-based PHD Canada is the media agency of record. Boston Pizza has a total marketing budget of around $18.5 million.
