Updated at 9:34 a.m. June 19, 2012
Tony’s Pizza launched a regional marketing campaign around its square-shaped pizza. The campaign is designed to eventually expand to a national audience via social media and mobile aspects, says Kelly Hilgert Spronk, brand manager for Tony’s Pizza at Schwans, which owns the product.
The regional aspects of the campaign involve an on-the-road tour in Memphis, Tenn., St. Louis, Mo., Missouri, Kansas City, Mo. and Omaha, Neb. Participants at these road tours, which stop at grocery stores, farmers markets and other highly populated areas, will be prompted to “like” Tony’s Facebook page and scan QR codes that direct them to an online sweepstakes site. By driving regional consumers to interact with the brand via social media Tony’s Pizza hopes to build national awareness.
The emphasis of the campaign is the added value of the pizza product due to the new shape. “Because we’ve gone to the square shaped pizza, we wanted to play that up and still maintain the overall message that more food in every box means a better value,” says Spronk.
The brand’s specific target is moms in their thirties with more than one child, a Brand Connections representative says. These women are consumers who most actively use their smart devices for social media, who can increase both sales and awareness for the product.
Though Facebook is the only social media platform currently being used, Spronk says that Tony’s is looking at different avenues to engage the consumer through social media. However, the current goal is to continue to create awareness around the square-shaped pizza with the consumers who use Facebook the most.
As of this writing, the Tony’s Facebook page has received 5,000 additional “likes,” and entries on the online sweepstakes page have quadrupled, according to Spronk.
“The regional part of the job has been done and word has begun to push out on a national level,” says Cannonball account manager Marianne Welsh.
BCX, a division of agency Brand Connection, produced the campaign in conjunction with marketing agency Cannonball. The two have worked together on other event activations for Schwan’s in the past.
