At a time when the cost of living keeps going up, Little Caesars is relying on its core brand ethos to connect with consumers: offering low prices and high value in a playful entertaining manner.
“From a strategy standpoint, we are focused on making sure that we’re reinforcing our values,” says Greg Hamilton, chief marketing officer at Little Caesars. “It’s a brand with over 65 years of incredible innovation, disruption, and a brand personality that has been so consistent and distinct from our competitors for decades going back to even TV commercials with our founder.”
The brand is known for giving away two pizzas for the price of one with its classic Pizza, Pizza deal. As of late, the brand has been leaning into culture – whether it is teaming with Marvel’s Fantastic Four franchise or its ongoing NFL sponsorship, which includes flying eyebrows during a Super Bowl spot earlier this year, and the introduction of a new mascot, the Deal Deer, for this year’s NFL season.
“Our brand personality embodies what Pizza Night is all about,” explains Hamilton. “Since we’ve had that consistent brand personality going back for decades, it becomes a very easy launching pad for us to do some really fun things with consumers.”
Prior to joining Little Caesars, Hamilton held senior marketing positions at McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Wingstop. Brand Innovators caught up with Hamilton from his office in Detroit to discuss how the brand is showing up in the NFL season, delivery innovation, as well as how the brand is leaning into being “the real deal.”
Can you talk about plans for your NFL partnership this year?
The NFL has been such a great partnership for us. This will be our fourth year and is going to be our best yet. We have leaned even further into the partnership this year with the Deal Deer campaign that is going to extend the entire season. It’s all about how Little Caesars is the real deal. We are going to highlight our incredible value that’s unmatched, the kinds of amazingly craveable products that we have and are going to launch.
We have, for the first-time ever, a campaign that features the Deal Deer. He’s a really fun and unexpected mascot who is going to crash into football moments and help fans make the right choice to choose Little Caesars. It launched with the NFL and will continue throughout the season. It shows off our fun, playful personality while helping remind people that Little Caesars is the best deal in pizza.
Will we be seeing you at the Super Bowl?
The Super Bowl remains to be seen. Right now we’re focused on the season. We’re excited about everything that’s going to come to life there. We’re partnering with athletes again. We’re going to have unique promotions and products to drive some growth.
Can you talk about your approach to menu innovation?
Menu innovation is really important in the QSR space. It’s very important to us. For us, every new product needs to deliver on our promise of having more flavor, more fun, and more food for your money.When we can really make sure that all of those three things together are represented, we launch something that’s truly incredible and stands out from the sea of sameness.
A good example of that is our Crazy Puffs line, which we launched last year. Because it had all three of those components, it went viral very quickly and became a huge seller on our menu. More recently, our fantastic four-in-one pizza that was aligned with “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” movie was another incredible product that helped our guests have four flavors in one pizza at an incredible price.
What is your strategy in partnering with Marvel and getting the brand into these cultural places?
We’re very intentional about the partnerships we choose. We’re not out there choosing to be involved in everything. Whether it’s Marvel or Call of Duty or the NFL, our goal is to connect with consumers in moments and areas where they have some passion. When they have that passion, we’re able to connect with them in a cultural way that we know makes them excited to consider Little Caesars. It makes our brand more relevant. We want people to see Little Caesars as more than just a place to grab dinner. We want them to see us as a relevant part of their lives, part of the fun, part of the culture they already love. Because our personality is so distinct from everybody else, it really feels like a very natural fit for us.
You recently had a partnership with Mountain Dew. Can you talk about how collabing with other brands also helps you stand out in the market?
Mountain Dew is a great partner for us because, obviously, it’s already part of the pizza experience for many guests. Mountain Dew fans are passionate. This partnership allowed us to tap into their enthusiasm. Collaborations like this also tap into what people naturally crave while they’re eating pizza. It keeps the brand fresh and culturally relevant. It also allows us to reach a different audience, one that maybe helps us reintroduce Little Caesars to people who haven’t tried us in a while.
You’ve mentioned the word value throughout this conversation. Can you talk about how at a time when consumers are tightening their budgets, you are leaning into this message of value?
We’re in a unique point in time right now with the economy, with inflation. We have all had to grapple with this over the past few years. Consumers have clearly been impacted by this. The QSR industry overall is struggling to drive transaction growth. We are uniquely positioned as having been the value leader and recognized as the value leader by consumers for over 15 years at this point. Most recently, Dataessential told us that consumers rated us “The Best Value in America.”
For us, it’s making sure that we’re reinforcing our value because while we used to be the value player that, started with ‘Pizza, Pizza’ – getting two pizzas for one price – and then moved on to $5 hot-and-ready, today’s value looks different than that. We have taken advantage of opportunities to expand on what has traditionally been our bread and butter with our non-digital carryout and we’ve added digital approaches, digital offerings, personalization, and the kinds of value and promotions that guests are preferring when they’re transacting digitally. This has provided a massive boost. Digital value is an area that we’ve had a massive focus on over the past couple of years.
You recently launched a robot delivery service in Los Angeles. Can you talk about this innovation and where we might see more of this?
Innovation is also core to who we are as well. It’s part of our DNA. Hot-and-ready was an innovation, having pizza ready and available right when you walk in. The pizza portal, which is in all of our restaurants, is also an innovation. The conveyor pizza oven was a Little Caesars innovation. We’re continuing our approach to make sure that we’re looking at things like robot delivery. The goal isn’t to just chase shiny new technologies. It’s to find ways that make the customer experience faster, easier, and in some cases more fun. Technology that helps us do that while keeping our prices low and the pizza hot and fresh is worth exploring. There may be more things like this in the future.
Can you talk about how your past experiences at other QSR brands have helped shape your perspective where you are now?
I’ve been in the QSR industry now for quite some time. It is a wonderful, crazy, fast-paced industry. It’s so different and distinct, but it is a lot of fun. One of the most incredible things about being in this business is seeing the results of your work in about 24 hours. Your success or failure comes very quickly and the results, frankly, are very plain for everyone in the company and franchises to see. I’ve been really fortunate to have worked on or at some of the most amazing QSR brands, teaching me some critical lessons.
At McDonald’s, it was about the importance of value and getting franchisee support for value initiatives, which was not easy and is not easy in this industry. That was a lesson that was certainly very important for me to learn. At Wendy’s, it was about the power of distinct brand
building through breaking the rules in social media. At Wingstop, it was all about the rapid acceleration of digital ordering and personalization. All of these lessons and many more have helped prepare me to oversee what is, of course, the best brand in QSR, Little Caesars.
