Pizza Hut: from 3,000 to 45,000 followers

Pizza Hut's brand had been in decline for years. Domino's dominated the category, Hell Pizza sat comfortably in second place, and Pizza Hut was fading into irrelevance — especially with younger audiences.

Their social media reflected the problem: generic corporate content, mostly ads, nothing anyone would choose to follow. No personality, no engagement, no reason to care.

They needed to become relevant again. Not through advertising, but through content people actually wanted to watch.

‍

We embedded a team of 8-9 people and built a content engine designed for speed, volume, and personality.

We launched multiple original series that leaned into absurdity and internet culture:

- "Pineapple Challenge" — We doubled the amount of pineapple on a pizza every day until we hit a follower goal. It got absurd fast, and the internet loved the chaos.

- "Honk for Pizza" — We handed out free pizzas in traffic jams to anyone who honked. Simple, fun, shareable.

- Game show-style videos — Quick, playful formats that felt native to TikTok.

- Bait-and-switch ads — Videos that look like one thing, then reveal they're a Pizza Hut ad. Multiple videos hit 10M+ views each.

We also built "The Pizza Hut Guy" — our on-camera talent Leigh became so recognisable that people stop him in the street. He's not a mascot, he's a character people genuinely like.

The engine runs on iteration. We analyse what hits, double down on what works, and stay reactive to trends and cultural moments in real time.

‍

- Grew followers from 3,000 to 45,000 in two years — 15x growth

- Now the largest pizza brand account in New Zealand

- Multiple videos over 10 million views

- 1.1 million likes on TikTok alone

- Top-performing video: 12.8M views, 727K likes, 62K saves, 6.2% engagement rate

- Created a recognisable character — "The Pizza Hut Guy" — who gets stopped in the street

‍