Pizza Hut partners with Edelman to hijack Hong Kong’s lunch rush with cheeky pop-up store

Pizza Hut is hijacking the crazy lunch lines of Hong Kong with its new comical pop-up store to give hungry lunch-goers a timely reminder that they don’t need to waste their time waiting for a delicious lunch.

Hong Kong’s lunch rush is exactly that: a manic rush. Why? Because if you snooze, you queue. From 12:30-2 the city’s cafes and restaurants have lines trailing out the door. And with most of the working population only getting a 1-hour break, many of them don’t have the time to wait 30 minutes for a table.

And so the Pop-Up Pizza Hut was born to surprise hungry lunchtime queuers with a cheeky reminder that Pizza Hut’s Meal-for-One menu always provides ‘Deliciousness without the Wait’.

‘Pop-Up’ by name, pop-up by nature, the Pop-Up Pizza Hut is a giant pizza box designed to literally pop-up and transform into a make-shift ‘pop-up store’ in the middle of the city’s busy lunch queues – to surprise and win over hungry stomachs and hearts at the most important time of the working day.

Just like the tasty pizzas it serves, the Pop-Up Pizza Hut is here one minute and gone the next. The activation travels from location to location of Hong Kong’s busiest lunch spots, catching restaurant managers and frustrated lunch lines off-guard with the playful message “What are you waiting for?”. Once sold out, the transportable store moves to a new hotspot with a fresh delivery of pizzas ready to serve.

“When Pizza Hut came calling to revive awareness of their lunch menu, we knew we had to find a disruptive way to differentiate the brand – and that’s exactly what we’ve done. Lunch breaks are always mayhem and for some reason queues have become an accepted feature of Hong Kong lunch culture. It’s a behavior no one has ever questioned or made a point of, so it was the perfect opportunity to do something unexpected and get the brand noticed and remembered,” said Amy Cheng, Creative Director, Edelman.

A simple message boxed up in an unexpected and comically lo-fi experience, the Pop-Up Pizza Hut made its debut on April 1st – a day brands have more chance of getting away with hijacking people from outside rival restaurants. Alongside promoting their Meal-for-One menu, it was also used to deliver the news of the brand’s joke-filled 3-day promotion of their divisive ultra-pineapple-y ‘Superb Pineapple’ pizza.

“With only a 1-hour lunch break ‘what are you waiting for?’… It’s the question no one seems to ask themselves, but it resonates with everyone. QSR in Hong Kong is very competitive and we need to use what we can to our advantage – without terrorizing the competition too much. This insight and idea really shows our personality and playful side, and most importantly highlights one of the many ways Pizza Hut always delivers.” – Renee Chan, Customer Experience & Marketing Director, Pizza Hut Hong Kong.

Although its debut came yesterday, the plan is for the Pop-Up Pizza Hut to become an ongoing extension of Pizza Hut stores around the city to keep driving awareness of the message among lunch goers and at other busy, time-strapped opportunities.

Amy Cheng adds: “Pizza Hut always has a presence at live events in Hong Kong – and live events always have people lining up for food and drinks. So, along with the daily lunch rush, we will keep finding times and places for the Pop-Up Pizza Hut to give people ‘deliciousness without the wait’.”

Credits
Agency: Edelman Hong Kong
Regional Executive Creative Director: John Koay
Creative Directors: Amy Cheng, Oliver Davis
Design Director: Andy Chan
Senior Art Director: Carson Ho
Assistant Art Director: Maggie Lee
Production Manager: Richard Poon
Head of Strategy: Phyllis Yip
Digital Associate Director: Logan Cheng
Junior Strategist: Nathalie Yeung
PR Brand Associate Director: Gary Lai
PR Brand Assistant Executive: Janet Ma
Client: Pizza Hut Hong Kong Marketing Team
Production: Bourbon Production Limited