Pizza Hut selects GSD&M as its creative agency, replacing Droga5

Pizza Hut has selected its newest creative agency of record, GSD&M. The change comes after the No. 2 pizza chain in March said it would end its relationship with Droga5 in June, after just two years. Pizza Hut has churned through five creative agencies in less than a decade. GSD&M says it learned of its win when Pizza Hut's marketing team showed up in a bus stuffed with pizza and champagne. "This is a huge moment in time for Pizza Hut as we fight to take back the pizza category," said Marianne Radley, Pizza Hut's U.S. chief brand officer, in a statement issued by the agency. Domino's unseated Pizza Hut as the top chain last year. Radley joined Pizza Hut in February, a month after Zipporah Allen became U.S. chief marketing officer. Pizza Hut has had brief agency relationships in the past, under different marketing leadership. Droga5 won the account in May 2016, following Deutsch, which had it from July 2014 until 2016. McGarryBowen's brief tenure ran from September 2013 until July 2014. The Martin Agency held the account from December 2009 until 2013. BBDO was Pizza Hut's last longstanding creative agency, handling the chain's account from 1987 until 2009, holding on even as the business went up for grabs several times during that tenure. "We need to invest in an agency as much as we want to get out of an agency," Radley told Ad Age in April. "We need to spend the time with them and get to know them and really do the due diligence. It's no secret, I understand, the amount of agencies Pizza Hut has had through the revolving door. And we have to question, at some point, is the process right selecting those agencies?"

Pizza Hut selects GSD&M as its creative agency, replacing Droga5

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