Pizza Hut hits drive-thrus to get consumers to ‘cheat’ on their burgers

Dive Brief:

Pizza Hut is asking consumers to “cheat on their cheeseburger” with the launch of the Cheeseburger Melt, a parmesan-crusted thin crust folded Melt filled with beef, bacon, onions, mozzarella and cheddar with a “Burger Sauce” served on the side, per a company release.
The fast-food chain is promoting the product by having delivery drivers appear at burger-chain drive-thrus in Chicago and Miami (the headquarter locations of McDonald’s and Burger King, respectively). The drivers’ cars have a QR code on the back windows and a message asking consumers if they want a better burger.
Those who scan the code will be entered to redeem a coupon for a free Cheeseburger Melt and a Pepsi drink as part of the PepsiCo marketer’s long-running “Better with Pepsi” promotional platform. The campaign demonstrates how QSRs are returning to past tactics of geoconquesting and competitive sparring.

Dive Insight:

Pizza Hut is launching a cross-category offering by taking aim at burger chains with the help of QR code-enabled delivery drivers. The bold effort looks to conquest competitors’ drive-thrus — in their headquarters’ hometowns, no less — in a return to the kind of competitive campaigning the QSR category was known for before the pandemic.

“We thought we'd kick off our burger journey with something bold,” said Lindsay Morgan, chief marketing officer at Pizza Hut, in a release. “That's why we're making waves in burger chain drive-thrus."

The effort is also savvy. By asking consumers to use QR codes to access the promo, the company can also gain access to valuable consumer data. A recent campaign from Coca-Cola’s Innocent Drinks captured more than 25,000 consumer profiles from a digital out-of-home campaign that leveraged the scannable codes. That campaign leveraged a platform from Digiphy to assist in the collection of first-party consumer data including name, email, address and birthdate.

Pizza Hut is no stranger to outre marketing. For Valentine’s Day, the chain gave consumers in select markets the opportunity to send a free “Goodbye Pie” to a future ex while drafting breakup texts for consumers in other markets. During last year’s busy holiday delivery season, the company distributed welcome mats with a QR code that offered delivery drivers a chance to get a free pizza after dropping off packages. As part of a tie-in with last year’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” movie, the company tested its ability to deliver pizzas in underground subway stations.

Pizza Hut’s partnership with PepsiCo and its “Better with Pepsi” promotional platform is also fitting for its challenge to the established burger chains. Though the “Better with Pepsi” positioning has softened in recent years, it was originally launched in 2021 as a challenge to the top three national burger chains, pointing out that none of them had soda contracts with PepsiCo despite company research indicating consumers preferred its product over rival Coca-Cola.