CASE STUDIES
Not Just Pizza!
OVERVIEW
Paisano’s Pizza Expands Its Footprint 400%+ with ESB Advertising’s Creative Campaign Planning
Paisanos Pizza started in June of 1998 in Fairfax, Virginia as a local pizza joint serving up gourmet pizzas made from ingredients that are prepared from scratch. As part of the food delivery business, Paisano’s operates in a highly competitive industry, particularly as part of the pizza market. Not only is this sector highly saturated with many options for consumers to choose from, there are also several dominant players such as Dominos, Pizza Hut, and Papa John’s. As a result, in 2014, Paisano’s Pizza began working with ESB Advertising to help it differentiate its brand and expand its reach within its local communities.
ESB Advertising began by first creating a new tagline, “Not Just Pizza, But Something for Everyone” to drive appeal beyond the pizza audience. ESB then paired the tagline with a catchy jingle for TV spots which helped make the tagline “sticky” in viewers’ minds. Next ESB developed a new marketing campaign that aligned Paisano’s brand with local athletes as spokespeople for the brand. The first athlete that signed on to the campaign was Washington Redskin’s wide receiver, Pierre Garcon. Garcon had just signed with the Redskins and was new to the area so ESB developed a creative advertising campaign that highlighted his experience in a new city and featured a comical spot of Garcon trying to match his pizza-making skills to his football skills. The series also included a satirical spot of Garcon placing an excessively large, but also diverse order for his team, underscoring Paisano’s tagline that its menu has something for everyone!
After the success of the initial campaign with Garcon, ESB Advertising helped sign new local celebrities to the Paisano’s Pizza team, including fellow NFL stars Ryan Kerrigan, Brian Mitchell, Chris Baker, Terrelle Pryor, and Santana Moss; NBA players Markieff Morris and George Muresan; NHL 2018 Stanley Cup winners André Burakovsky and Devante Smith-Pelly, as well as fellow NHL players Tom Wilson, Karl Alzner, and Craig Laughlin; American soccer player Ali Krieger, and Washington Post sportswriter/former NFL player Ken Harvey. At this point, ESB had to find new, creative ways to feature multiple endorsements and blend celebrity athletes from various sports into Paisano’s advertising campaigns. And so, a new campaign series was born, catchily titled: “WHATCHUWANT.” This campaign was so successful that even when celebrity athletes were traded out of the DC-Virginia-Maryland area, ESB Advertising secured national press coverage anyways.
Utilizing celebrity endorsements was a winning strategy that put Paisano’s Pizza on the map. When Paisano’s began partnering with ESB Advertising they had under 10 locations. Now, as of early 2021, Paisano’s Pizza has expanded to over 40 corporately owned and franchised locations, more than a 400% increase, with new locations on the way. By working with ESB Advertising, Paisano’s Pizza achieved its goal of broadening and deepening its brand awareness, thus resulting in impressive growth and a brand that will never be forgotten.
The pizza category is a very competitive and you must find a way to differentiate your brand from the big chain stores like Dominos, Pizza Hut and Papa Johns. ESB Advertising achieved this by signing on local athletes to be apart of the campaign. Aligning the local celebrities star power with Paisanos Pizza, achieved great brad awareness, which resulted in sales. The first athlete signed to the team was Washington Redskins wide receiver, Pierre Garcon. Pierre Garcon had just signed with the Washington Redskins and was new to the area. ESB Advertising came up with a cleaver way incorporate his experience in a new market by creating a series of TV spots.
Paisanos Pizza made ESB Advertising their agency of record in 2014. ESB Advertising created a tag line and a catchy jingle that would make grow in the community and always be top of mind. “Not Just Pizza, But Something for Everyone”
Every year ESB Advertising helped sign new celebrities to the Paisanos Pizza team. To name a few, Ryan Kerrigan, George Muresan, Santana Moss Chris Baker, Karl Alzner, Ali Krieger, Brian Mitchell, Craig Laughlin, Terrelle Pryor, Ken Harvey, Tom Wilson, Devante Smith-Pelly, André Burakovsky, Markieff Morris and more!
