28 Straight Quarters of Growth, 360% ROI

After a decade of flat sales, America's 10th largest pizza chain was tired of competing in the $5 pizza market.

That’s when my team and I helped Hungry Howie’s make a leap toward the future.

We debuted a new brand in regional Super Bowl commercials with a comedic concept called “Ad Guys” that pitted an art director against an account executive pitching bad marketing ideas inside an ad agency.

We overhauled the signage, store and box design, and made sure every ad was fresh and fun. From the moment the assets aired, sales soared along with other big results, including:

• The commercials I wrote for Ad Guys won Emmys in 2012, 2013 and 2014 for best campaign and/or individual spot and also garnered a 2015 Emmy nomination. Spots even went on to feature members of the Detroit Lions.

• Digital sales skyrocketed by 50% in some stores and many had a 360% ROI

• Sales grew 20-50% at each store that implemented the new brand standards

• Built on multi-platform TV, the campaign drove a relatively unknown pizza franchise to tie for first place with 86% familiarity in its core market. The commercials achieved 74% recall with less than 1/10th of the competitor’s budget (after only three years.)

• Passing Domino’s with the fastest same-store sales growth in the pizza industry, Hungry Howie’s achieved a 66% gross sales increase with 28 consecutive quarters of same-store sales increases

Tactics included: TV spots, outdoor, digital banners and video, free standing inserts, posters, social engagement, exhibit design, franchisee sales materials and truck graphics.

Please view commercials, a poster and a brand video below.