2023 Winner
SilverBest in Consumer Engagement
BronzeBest use of Influencers
Pizza Pizza
"Dip Roller"
Zulu Alpha Kilo / Media Experts
"Dip Roller"
Zulu Alpha Kilo / Media Experts
When you’re outspent by massive multinational competitors like Domino’s and Pizza Hut, you take any edge you can get. For Pizza Pizza, they saw an opportunity to win the pizza arms race – without talking about pizza at all.
The secret sauce? Dip.
It might surprise you to learn just how much Canadians love dipping sauce with their pizza. According to their research for Pizza Pizza, 59% of Canadians usually or always dip their slices.
Competitors don’t talk much about dip – even though they found more than 30% of Canadians say dipping sauce is either very important or the most important factor when they’re deciding
where to order from.
Good thing Pizza Pizza is so famous for its dip that internet commenters often joke that Pizza Pizza is a dip restaurant that just happens to sell pizza.
The agency knew if they reminded people how much they crave Pizza Pizza’s dips, they
could win the whole pie.
Pizza Pizza’s research showed that Canadians’ love of dip spans genders, age groups, and geographic regions. Moreover, dips – especially the Creamy Garlic dip that makes up more than 67% of the chain’s dip sales – are part of the cultural relevance of the brand.
So rather than a traditional advertising campaign promoting 14 different dips, they were looking for something that would tap into culture. They knew the message would mean so much more coming from fans than from traditional ways to build reach and frequency.
The core of their program was a unique social object designed to generate talk: the “Dip Roller.”
The “Dip Roller” is like a miniature paint roller, about 6-cm long, that helps pizza lovers spread dip evenly over every slice. It’s 3D-printed out of environmentally friendly, food-safe materials and comes complete with a tray in Pizza Pizza’s trademark orange.
In their initial run, they produced 200 Dip Rollers. Thirty-five were used for PR and creator outreach. The rest were given away through sweepstakes and social drops. Fans could register to win a “Dip Roller” by providing an email address on a branded landing page. The goal was to develop a tongue-in-cheek “breakthrough invention” that would get Canadians talking about Pizza Pizza.
The agency accelerated the viral spread of the idea through paid media, including transit OOH, programmatic display, specialty broadcast, and paid social advertising on Meta and TikTok. Creator content was also boosted on social channels for more authentic storytelling.
Contest winners received a “Dip Roller” of their very own and an invitation to post social content of themselves using it. To drive sales, everyone who entered was surprised and delighted with a code that can be redeemed for a free dip on their next Pizza Pizza order.
It's not unusual these days for brands to make content out of goofy ideas. On social media,
every day is April Fools.
What is unusual is to bring those ideas to life for real. Although it had a limited run, the “Dip Roller” was a physical product that consumers could actually get their hands on. And once they got their hands on one, they knew they wouldn’t keep quiet.
That’s why the program was designed to create a loop of conversation:
Phase 1: Launch through paid media, PR, and creator outreach to generate social buzz.
Phase 2: Ride a second wave of social buzz once Pizza Pizza fans received their Dip Rollers.
All the while, they’d be building associations between Pizza Pizza and its crave-worthy dips.
Canadians immediately fell in love with the adorable “Dip Roller." More than 117,000 people signed up with their email addresses to win a “Dip Roller”. A post-campaign survey of 1,000 Canadians 18–44 found nearly 90% of respondents would be interested in receiving a “Dip Roller”, 55% said they were more likely to visit or order from Pizza Pizza in the next 30 days now that they knew about the “Dip Roller” and more than half of respondents said they would tell a friend about it.
Dip sales systemwide rose 17% during the campaign window – significant because dips are an important source of ancillary revenue for franchise owners.
Sales rose even higher in markets where Pizza Pizza is newer and its reputation for dips less established, such as British Columbia (23%), Saskatchewan (30%), and Alberta (38%), suggesting that the campaign successfully inspired trial.
The public relations campaign secured a total reach of 4.2 million impressions through media outreach, both online and broadcast, and 7.2 million impressions through influencer outreach.
The secret sauce? Dip.
It might surprise you to learn just how much Canadians love dipping sauce with their pizza. According to their research for Pizza Pizza, 59% of Canadians usually or always dip their slices.
Competitors don’t talk much about dip – even though they found more than 30% of Canadians say dipping sauce is either very important or the most important factor when they’re deciding
where to order from.
Good thing Pizza Pizza is so famous for its dip that internet commenters often joke that Pizza Pizza is a dip restaurant that just happens to sell pizza.
The agency knew if they reminded people how much they crave Pizza Pizza’s dips, they
could win the whole pie.
Pizza Pizza’s research showed that Canadians’ love of dip spans genders, age groups, and geographic regions. Moreover, dips – especially the Creamy Garlic dip that makes up more than 67% of the chain’s dip sales – are part of the cultural relevance of the brand.
So rather than a traditional advertising campaign promoting 14 different dips, they were looking for something that would tap into culture. They knew the message would mean so much more coming from fans than from traditional ways to build reach and frequency.
The core of their program was a unique social object designed to generate talk: the “Dip Roller.”
The “Dip Roller” is like a miniature paint roller, about 6-cm long, that helps pizza lovers spread dip evenly over every slice. It’s 3D-printed out of environmentally friendly, food-safe materials and comes complete with a tray in Pizza Pizza’s trademark orange.
In their initial run, they produced 200 Dip Rollers. Thirty-five were used for PR and creator outreach. The rest were given away through sweepstakes and social drops. Fans could register to win a “Dip Roller” by providing an email address on a branded landing page. The goal was to develop a tongue-in-cheek “breakthrough invention” that would get Canadians talking about Pizza Pizza.
The agency accelerated the viral spread of the idea through paid media, including transit OOH, programmatic display, specialty broadcast, and paid social advertising on Meta and TikTok. Creator content was also boosted on social channels for more authentic storytelling.
Contest winners received a “Dip Roller” of their very own and an invitation to post social content of themselves using it. To drive sales, everyone who entered was surprised and delighted with a code that can be redeemed for a free dip on their next Pizza Pizza order.
It's not unusual these days for brands to make content out of goofy ideas. On social media,
every day is April Fools.
What is unusual is to bring those ideas to life for real. Although it had a limited run, the “Dip Roller” was a physical product that consumers could actually get their hands on. And once they got their hands on one, they knew they wouldn’t keep quiet.
That’s why the program was designed to create a loop of conversation:
Phase 1: Launch through paid media, PR, and creator outreach to generate social buzz.
Phase 2: Ride a second wave of social buzz once Pizza Pizza fans received their Dip Rollers.
All the while, they’d be building associations between Pizza Pizza and its crave-worthy dips.
Canadians immediately fell in love with the adorable “Dip Roller." More than 117,000 people signed up with their email addresses to win a “Dip Roller”. A post-campaign survey of 1,000 Canadians 18–44 found nearly 90% of respondents would be interested in receiving a “Dip Roller”, 55% said they were more likely to visit or order from Pizza Pizza in the next 30 days now that they knew about the “Dip Roller” and more than half of respondents said they would tell a friend about it.
Dip sales systemwide rose 17% during the campaign window – significant because dips are an important source of ancillary revenue for franchise owners.
Sales rose even higher in markets where Pizza Pizza is newer and its reputation for dips less established, such as British Columbia (23%), Saskatchewan (30%), and Alberta (38%), suggesting that the campaign successfully inspired trial.
The public relations campaign secured a total reach of 4.2 million impressions through media outreach, both online and broadcast, and 7.2 million impressions through influencer outreach.
Credits
Agency: Zulu Alpha KiloCreative Chairman: Zak Mroueh
Chief Creative Officer: Brian Murray
Creative Director/Art Director: Michael Siegers
Creative Director/Copywriter: Jonah Flynn
Art Director: Amaris Branco
Copywriter: Nicholas Kidd
Designer: Ana-Marija Vlahovic, Ben Ruby
Agency Producer: Teresa Bayley
Account Team: Alyssa Guttman, Alex Berube, Amy Nguyen
Strategy Directors: Heather Segal, Cameron Fleming
Media Agency: Media Experts
Media Experts Team: Kareem Boulos, Faebri Michetti, Bartu Suer, Lily Lazzara, Justin Gagnon, Blake Goldring
Client: Pizza Pizza
Clients: Adrian Fuoco, Amber Winters, Adam Williamson, Zoe Pagazani, Ivy Yu, Raymond Luk
PR Agency: spPR
Production House: Fuze Reps
Director: Jim Norton
Director of Photography: Zak Koski
Executive Producer/Line Producer: Tonya Norton
Food Stylist: Claire Stubbs
Post Production Company: Zulubot
Post Production Producer: Colleen Allen
Editor: Alain Elliot
Colourist: Can Yuksel
Online Artists: Can Yuksel
Audio Engineer: Noah Mroueh
3D Printing / Manufacturing: HotPop Factory