Pizza Hut launches The Pizza Hunt: In-game ordering service in Call of Duty Warzone, part of new campaign via VMLY&R Commerce
This past weekend, Hut Games – Pizza Hut Australia’s gaming team – and select streamers took part in the Pizza Hunt – giving players the opportunity to order free pizzas in Call of Duty Warzone. The concept was developed by VMLY&R Commerce.
Taking advantage of the new in-game proximity chat functionality, Pizza Hut’s streamers were able to connect with players to take their orders. Gamers who were able to track down the Pizza Hut delivery people in the Al Mazerah map were rewarded instantly.
Says Jake Barrow, group ECD, VMLY&R Melbourne & Sydney: “It’s hard to stay relevant in gaming but for Pizza Hut to capitalise on the new proximity chat function in Call of Duty just days after launch is a real win. As a COD veteran, I know that if you’re going to get rekt [taken down], you may as well do it with a free Pepperoni Lovers.”
The targeted activation is ongoing with Hut Games streamers Manik or GHHutz in Al Mazrah in the Warzone mode.
Client: Pizza Hut
CEO & Founder: Phil Reed
Director of Marketing & Digital: Simon Stocks
Project Assistant: Jonathan Reed
Creative Agency: VMLY&R COMMERCE
CCO, AUNZ: Paul Nagy
Group ECD, Sydney & Melbourne: Jake Barrow
Senior Account Director: Gracie Grinham
Business Director: Erin Hunter
Creative Director: Adam Searle
Senior Art Director: Bryce Waters
Senior Copywriter: Tatsuki Kamekawa
Junior Art Director: Andrew Bao
Junior Copywriter: Charles Dejean
21 Comments
A 360 no-scope of a campaign. Get rekt, Dominos.
This is brilliant if its real. Congrats all.
SO BLOODY GOOD.
As someone who does the fridge/microwave/toilet dash in the couple of minutes between rounds of CoD.
This hits the nail on the head.
Love it.
What an epic way to speak to a core audience! love it!
Wait wha…?
Great idea, wouldn’t have been easy to do in such a short time frame of the new feature being released.
Super innovative use of the tech (better than forcing Samsung skins into Fortnite anyway) but lemme get this straight, you have to:
A. Happen to be matched on the same team as one of two influencers out of the 1-3+ million active daily Warzone players
B. Be within microphone distance of them while they verbally explain the concept individually to each player
C. Then get some kind of… code I guess? (They don’t really explain how this works in the video)
D. Do all of this while playing one of the sweatiest games ever made under fire from all directions?
Can I get a statistical breakdown of the chance of this actually happening?
Not trying to sh*tcan the idea ‘cos I really wanna like it but holy mother of barriers to entry Batman.
I think we all know this is an obvious award play – but at least it’s a good one. I don’t think the intent here is really to sell pizza. That’s the ad biz!
I didn’t work on this, but I assume they’re targeting mealtime and in Australia/OCE only. Which would mean active users drops to around 300,000 globally in any average one hour period and a large proportion of that spread throughout NA, EU and Asia. So I reckon it’d make the chances pretty decent of getting in a lobby pretty decent if you’re keeping an eye on the streams and timing load in. Stream snipers do this stufff all the time
I got u fam.
A: The idea is as much about the streamers talking about how Pizza Hut is doing this cool in-game challenge, while their fairly large audience tunes in to watch the action unfold, as it is about individuals getting actual pizzas. It’s not about having low barriers to entry to be able give away millions of pizzas to every human. Nor is it intended to do Pizza Hut’s entire marketing job for the next 12 months. It’s a fun promo taking place in space Pizza Hut is already playing in.
B: At the start of each match the Pizza delivery person messages the lobby so people know what’s going on (if they hadn’t already heard about it). Then they have to ‘hunt’ the Pizza Hut player and if they get within ear shot, verbally place an order (that’s the fun bit).
C: Players are then contacted privately to place their order.
D: Yes, that’s the fun bit. I saw it playing out. People enjoyed it.
Hope that cleared things up. It plays out a lot more simply than you’re thinking.
And glad you’re not trying to sh*tcan the idea 😉
This will clean up in the gaming categories. Nice one.
What a hater. Pizza Hut have been sponsoring gaming for a while now. They happen to do something innovative and it’s “an award play”. How about it’s just a cool advertising thing, because we’re meant to be in the business of doing cool advertising things. No ones claiming it’s their big brand play to dethrone other pizza brands.
I like this. Its smart. But nobody will know about it except ad blogs and award juries. It’s ok. Nothing to be ashamed of. But don’t pretend it’s something else.
Amazing idea, but if you’ve played enough warzone…. you’re not living long enough to even take an order 😀
You gotta up that K/D, friend
I appreciate you think it’s smart but you’re wrong. The people who knew about it were in the gaming lobbies and on the streaming platforms where the idea played out. They loved it. Again, not intended to be the biggest campaign that Pizza Hut does for the year, but a genuine piece of fun for their gaming audience.
re; something people haven’t addressed regarding point A…
you don’t need to be on the same team as the Streamer. The new feature people are loving is proximity chat – where you can now hear anyone within a certain distance of you. you used to only hear the voices of your teammates but now that has changed
also that means they know not to shoot you – plus a new game mode even encourages rival teams to cooperate, so this idea really is playing into specific new features of the game pretty well
Except for everyone watching the streams of course
Cover blown.
and I fucking love this