HOW PIZZA HUT TURNS ITSELF INTO THE SOCIAL ENABLERS FOR GAMERS IN CHINA

Short List
TitleHOW PIZZA HUT TURNS ITSELF INTO THE SOCIAL ENABLERS FOR GAMERS IN CHINA
BrandYUM
Product / ServiceRETAIL/FAST FOOD CHAIN
CategoryA04. Travel, Leisure, Retail, Restaurants & Fast Food Chains
EntrantMINDSHARE CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Idea Creation MINDSHARE CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Media Placement MINDSHARE CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Media Placement 2 TENCENT Shenzhen, CHINA
Production MINDSHARE CHINA Shanghai, CHINA
Production 2 TENCENT Shenzhen, CHINA

Credits

Name Company Position
Carey Wang Mindshare General Manager, Yum!
Bolin Wang Mindshare General Manager, Content+
Yi Liu Mindshare Partner, content+
Minn Chen Tencent Gaming Planning
Jerry Long Tencent Business Director
Echo Jin Tencent Brand manager
Sara Xue Yum! China Manager

The Campaign

Mobile gaming, an activity that more than 60% of post 90s are obsessed with, is a great way to approach the young audience. But how can we do it in a way that’s non cliché and truly be impactful, both to business and to gamers? Through our research, we found a unique insight. While most mobile game types are good to play alone, there is one exception – multiple player battle games. These games are better to play together with fellow gamers in an offline location because they require team strategy and seamless coordination. Playing together offline also give gamers a sense of brotherhood. This could be a perfect opportunity for Pizza Hut.

Creative Execution

Working directly with the team at King of Glory, we created a location-based in game targeting system. Whenever any King of Glory player went within a 5 minutes radius of any Pizza Hut store, we will push a notification to them, inviting them to form teams at the nearest Pizza Hut. The notification roughly translated read “Play everywhere, but come to Pizza Hut to be must win!” After they clicked into the game, they would see which other gamers are around the area, and form a team. Pizza Hut stores were decorated with elements from the game, even with cosplayers dressed as characters from the game. Once they were in the Pizza Hut store, we provided them a gamer only Wi-Fi so that they had the best gaming experience. We also gave players a limited edition in-game theme that can only be redeemed once they finished team games in store.

In 20 days, over 100,000 gamers rushed into the Pizza Hut stores and played King of Glory in Pizza Hut stores, 2 times more than what we originally expected. But most importantly, Pizza Hut established affinity among young gamers. 50% of gamers plan to go to Pizza Hut and play the game offline even after the campaign is over. (Source: Weibo, CI)

Pizza Hut, the brand that introduced pizza to China in 1990, is today much older than its core target of young consumers. And we faced a significant challenge in terms of appeal to young Chinese. Mobile gaming, an activity that more than 60% of post 90s are obsessed with, is a great way to approach the young audience. Our strategy to let Pizza Hut become the social enabler for the gaming community, and make Pizza Hut the first place gamers think of when they are looking for a place offline to play mobile games together.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Among all the multiple player battle game, King of Glory is among the most popular ones, having nearly 40 million daily active users. Pizza Hut’s Chinese name Bi Sheng Ke, literally translate into Must Win Guest, which is perfect for us. Who doesn’t want to be always on the winning team in gaming? Our strategy to let Pizza Hut become the social enabler for the gaming community, and make Pizza Hut the first place gamers think of when they are looking for a place offline to play mobile games together.

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