Pizza Hut is wasting no time in activating its new NCAA sponsorship.
The restaurant chain, which last month closed on its multiyear corporate partnership, has already launched a contest that will pay one fan $50,000 to attend several NCAA Division I championships. Pizza Hut will select the winner from people who enter online by Nov. 6 at the brand’s website — the first NCAA event will be the Nov. 19 men’s and women’s cross country championships.
The fan, who will be called Pizza Hut’s All-American, will be able to attend as many championships as possible while sharing the experience on social media. The winner will be treated as a Pizza Hut contract employee, meaning there won’t be benefits to go with that $50,000 payday.
David Daniels, vice president of media and advertising for the Plano, Texas-based Yum brand, said part of the motivation behind the contest is to bring attention to sports “that often don’t get the limelight.” Daniels said the ideal candidate will be passionate, outgoing and social media savvy.
More than 1,000 fans entered during the first week and the brand hopes those numbers will jump by placing ads on job sites. So far, the entrants are a mix of men and women, some of whom are big sports fans, but many others who are simply interested in the opportunity to create unique content from the events.
“We went into this with the anticipation that we’d uncover some interesting nuggets and insights about these championships,” Daniels said. “Internally, we looked at what other sponsors had done in the past, and a lot of the focus has been on basketball. We’re going to have a big plan for basketball, but we also wanted to approach this in a unique way so that we could reach fans throughout the year.”
Former Duke basketball player Shane Battier has been signed by Pizza Hut to be an endorser for its NCAA sponsorship. He’s scheduled to make appearances and do interviews for Pizza Hut, which is working with Creation, a Weber Shandwick company, on the activation.
Pizza Hut, which was one of the NCAA’s first corporate partners in the mid-1980s, negotiated the sponsorship with the NCAA’s rights holders, CBS and Turner Sports. As part of its deal, Pizza Hut agreed to activate around all of the NCAA’s 90 championships this academic year.
The NCAA has had sponsors from the pizza restaurant category in the past, such as Papa John’s and Domino’s, but those marketing rights were passed through corporate champion Coca-Cola. Coke returned that category to the NCAA a few years ago for CBS and Turner to sell outright.
Joni Comstock, acting NCAA executive vice president for championships and alliances, is working as the NCAA’s liaison with Turner, CBS and the partner program. She takes over for Mark Lewis, who left in August after 4 1/2 years at the association, while the NCAA searches for a permanent replacement.
