2026 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Facing declining sales across the business, Pizza Hut needed to ensure the Holiday season was a good one. December to January is, however, notoriously one of the most competitive seasons for the QSR category (accounting for a 20-25% increase in sales). From specialty products to LTOs to price drops, restaurants go all out during this time to build up their fan bases.

Every year, they hedge their bets on the Triple Box, a one-of-a-kind, three-tiered combo box filled with pizzas, pastas, and sides – perfect for those big hosting moments. However, while people liked the Triple Box, excitement wore off quickly, and they didn’t purchase the product repeatedly, an important part of Pizza Hut’s success during the Holiday season.

The challenge was to turn temporary excitement for the Triple Box into long-term fandom. I.e., get more people to buy more Triple Boxes more often during the Holiday season.

The Triple Box has always been seen as a novelty item. Likely because they’ve only ever talked about how cool it looks and how cheap it makes feeding a big group. But the Triple Box also has the potential to be so much more than just fun packaging. In a parallel universe, it may even be seen as the perfect vessel for a fan to enjoy all their favourite items from Pizza Hut in one go.

In a world increasingly driven by customization and ownership, they saw the Triple Box as more than a novelty product – it could be a reflection of our customers and their unique choices. So, instead of positioning it as Triple Box, they chose to spotlight the 24,356 unique combinations they could create out of it. Reinforcing the brand’s menu variety and giving them a sense of ownership over their customized build.

They turned a ‘sense of ownership’ into true ownership by transforming the Triple Box product into “‘Intellectual Pizza Property”, a passive income-generating program from Pizza Hut.

How? By turning each of the 24,356 possible Triple Box combinations that were claimed into ownable, income-generating IP for our fans.

To celebrate the customizability of the Triple Box, they created a 100% customizable campaign where fans could claim and name their unique Triple Box combo, as well as receive a personalized ad kit to promote it. They then took it a step further, incentivizing their fans to become Pizza Hut’s biggest brand ambassadors. By adding affiliate links to each of their promotional assets, they gave each fan a chance to earn Hut Rewards when someone bought their combo. Turning a novelty purchase into a delicious piece of property they could generate free pizza from.

To reignite excitement and reposition the product from one Triple Box to “Intellectual Pizza Property” and its 24,356 unique combinations, they first had to educate and then engage their target audience.

Hard-working social and digital assets helped build a strong understanding of the idea; educating audiences that the Triple Box was now up for grabs in more ways than one. They strongly reinforced the variety of combinations possible, giving our delicious menu lineup all the airtime they could need – helping remind audiences that IPP wasn’t just a smart investment, it was a tasty one, too.

The agency used a combination of macro and micro influencers to help drive buzz around the idea. They helped build excitement around their own Triple Box builds, inviting followers to support their ‘IPP’ and educating them on how they could kickstart their own investments.

However, the brilliance of the campaign was in the personalized ad kits they sent to buyers. Each of them went out of their way to create their IPP and built Pizza Hut a ton of earned media by promoting their unique Triple Box builds on socials.

They drove a staggering 97.73% increase in Triple Box sales versus previous campaign periods.

Over-delivering on campaign objectives by 877%. Given so much of the campaign relied on engagement, it was a relief to see results not just spike, but beat out our top-performing campaigns by 41.8% CTR.

Within 4 weeks of being in-market, 20.5% of all Triple Boxes combinations were named and claimed.

The agency even unlocked a 20% repurchase rate by fans during the campaign vs previous launches. Finally, by turning the brand’s customers into influencers, the campaign generated an additional 3.5 million dollars in earned media.

Credits

Creative Agency: Leo Toronto
President: Ben Tarr
Chief Strategy Officer: Tahir Ahmad
Managing Director: Natasha Dagenais
Chief Creative Officers: Steve Persico, Angus Tucker
Executive Creative Director: Kohl Forsberg
Creative Director: Tyler McKissick
Senior Copywriter: Alex Scott
Designer Director: Louis Duarte
Senior Designer: Katherine Ross
Group Account Director: Scott Lyons
Account Director: Krzysztof Iwanicki
Account Executive: Vanessa Niragira
Integrated Project Manager: Brittney Kremer
VP, Production Director: Emma Du Boisson
Producer: Mike Spilchuk
Producer: Lu Zhang
SVP, Group Strategy Director: Ryan Roberts
Group Strategy Director: Pooja Beri
Senior Strategist: Aleeza Yermus
Digital Project Director: Thomas Degez
Associate Creative Director, Creative Technology: David Freedman
Manager, Print Production and Studio: Kevin Stephen
VP, Print and Post-Production: Gord Cathmoir
Editor: Kyle McNair

Production: Westside Studio
Executive Producer: Amanda Morrison
Line Producer: Meghan Buckley
Director: Ryan Szulc
DOP: Zach Koski
Casting Director: Stephen Milo

Editorial: Saints
Executive Producer: Emily McKay
Editor: Stephen Sora
Assistant Editor: Sam Rousseau

Audio and Music: Vapor
Executive Producer: Kailee Nowosad
Director: Dustin Anstey

Transfer: Darling VFX

Client: Pizza Hut Canada
President and General Manager: Daniel Meynen
Chief Brand Officer: Jennifer Ligotti
Marketing Director: Neil Littler
Marketing Manager: Daniela Di Vito
Innovation Manager: Kaela Lewis