The Monkeys and Pizza Hut part ways, as brand brings back ‘Dougie’
Pizza Hut has made two major creative moves, parting ways with agency The Monkeys, and bringing back ‘Dougie’, the character at the forefront of its advertising in the 1990s.
The return of Dougie has been made on a project basis by marketing agency Step Change.
Dougie, played by actor Diamid Heidenreich, appeared in Pizza Hut’s advertising between 1993 and 1996.
In the new campaign, another delivery boy hurries to the door of a Pizza Hut customer, and is shocked to see Dougie, still in his red cap, open the door.
The new ad also features the return of the cavalry charge tune, which also used to appear in the brand’s advertising.
Pizza Hut chief marketing officer, Chet Patel, told Mumbrella that the ad was a part of its new brand platform developed by Pizza Hut’s new leadership team, which returns the brand to its roots and leverages the emotional attachment people have with Pizza Hut.
“Everyone has a Pizza Hut story,” Patel said.
“We live in a world void of emotional attachment,” whereas the campaign is “cemented in emotion because we have Dougie back”, he said.
By tugging on the heartstrings of Australians and bringing back their childhood memories of Pizza Hut, Patel said that the campaign was “a celebration of our relationship with Australia”.
A Pizza Hut worker sticking a ‘hot dot’ onto the box is also seen in the ad wearing a ‘Dot Checker’ cap, a reference to Domino’s DOM Pizza Checker, a device which scans the quality of the pizza before it is sent out for delivery.
Up until the beginning of this year, The Monkeys was Pizza Hut’s agency of record. The agency was appointed to the account in 2017 to undertake a major brand revamp.
The Monkeys declined to comment on the movement of the account.
Cemented in emotion because Dougie is back? Half your customer base probably wasn’t even alive when he was on TV, or too young to remember. It was over 23 years ago…
People are more likely to remember that there used to be a hot spot that you peeled away on Pizza Hut boxes than they are to remember Dougie. Also begs the question, why bring that back? Is cold pizza a problem?
Call it for what it is. A cheap ad where the agency did what they were told.
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Hmmm
Dougie worked in the 90’s when Pizza Hut was the dominant brand in Australian and presumably the best product. Since then, may more craft pizza chains have taken market share, and Dominos have become leaders in product and technology.
Simply bringing back Dougie to create an emotional connection is using nostalgia for the sake of it. Not sure if this is going to improve consideration for Pizza Hut. Maybe among GenX Pizza eaters.
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The ad’s not bad as far as fastfood ads go, but this press release is terrible. This ad isn’t about stories and heart. It’s about the hot dot. Which the media release doesn’t even talk about. Come on, guys. When you’ve got a story to tell, tell it. Don’t just describe what we can all see with our own eyes.
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“We live in a world void of emotional attachment”.
Jesus, listen to Debbie Downer.
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Questioning:
– Why is the delivery boy in his early 20’s in awe of ‘Dougie’? With Dougie last on our screens 23 years ago, the delivery boy in your ad would have no idea who he is
– Heritage/nostalgia – not a huge opportunity for millennials – the progressive and mainstream millennials are interested in more than heritage/nostalgia, which appeals to the laggards amongst millennials
– Considering Australia’s growth through immigration over he last 20 years, hazard a guess that many of our millennials and young families would also have no idea who the bloke is
Sounds like a situation with a new agency coming on board struggling to get an original idea together quickly.
IMO this will work about as well as Hey Hey It’s Saturday making a comeback on a Wednesday.
Why listen to me? I worked the phones in the Pizza Hut call centre speaking to consumers for 3 years from 1999-2001. So my insights are nearly as up to date as Pizza Hut’s casting 🙂
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Will have about as much success as Hey Hey It’s Saturday returning to TV
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Like the ad, hate the pizzas. I’d suggest that could be the problem.
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As a seasoned well respected marketer I say ‘what the fuck are you doing’
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So this is what happens when a bunch of private equity people get in a room and smash out a brand platform?! What a stinker – strategy, idea and execution.
Most of the stories (nostalgia would be more accurate) people have about Pizza Hut are when it was a sit down family restaurant and the calvary jingle included was the 13 11 66 phone number (or 94811 something for Sydneysiders).
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I’ve got a Diamond Chopsticks story which I’ve been emotionally attached to for the past 25 years –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2yKa3WWDow
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“We live in a world void of emotional attachment”.
So we made an ad about emotional attachment.
What emotional attachment? The attachment we (the leadership team) have with the long gone time the brand meant something.
Also, the pizza is hot! The absolute bare minimum expectation.
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I live 500 metres from a pizza hut and you would have to pay me much more than the price of pizza to consider eating it. They need to fix their pizzas not their advertising.
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“Everyone has a Pizza Hut story”?
I certainly don’t.
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I do not have a Pizza Hut story.
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This idea is worse than that sushi pizza place that went bust.
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If they wanted to make creative that connected people today with nostalgia for pizza hut maybe they should have built a campaign around the kale that used to adorn the salad bar…
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I forgot to share – my most emotional Pizza Hut story was when they started paying me double digits to work the phones in their call centre.
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So how does the ‘hot dot’ work?
This ad tells me nothing.
I agree that only a few of us Gen Xers will remember Dougie but we’ve long since switched to local, good-quality pizza.
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It would help if “Dougie” was even borderline recognisable in 2019.
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The Monkeys do emotional storytelling really well. If that’s what they really wanted then they would’ve been presented with multiple options. All this press release tells me is that Pizza Hut can no longer afford to retain a real agency.
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best comment on this thread
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Get Dougie in the ring with the Gobbledok and let’s see who can really fill that emotional void we’ve been suffering since the ’90’s shall we?
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This is embarrassing and brand damaging.
It’s like a cheap version of a cheap Coles ad. The execution is terrible. I didn’t even recognise Dougie and even if I did, I’m not sure I get any emotional reaction. What a terrible excuse for an ad. What about the age group who are ordering pizzas? They would never know who he is.
The brand needs help. It’s clearly on its knees. Shame they ditched the Monkeys – an agency renowned for getting results. Did the Monkeys ever do any work for them?
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