666% New Zealand owned HELL Pizza has been serving up some of the country’s most-loved pizza since 1996. With 76 stores nationwide satisfying Kiwis daily, what could go wrong? Well, you might have heard of a slight global pandemic that threw even HELL into lockdown.

The question then became, how should they react? What can they do in order to keep their brand in people’s minds for over a month, while suddenly none of their stores can do business? Social media never sleeps, so HELL set out to make waves.

The resulting content was diverse and relevant, sparking conversation as well as meaningful interaction. It included the following and more:

  • Instructional videos on how to create two of their most popular pizzas from home.
  • A colouring competition for kids – any completed picture instantly won a free kid’s pizza voucher, and a huge 666 of them were up for grabs.
  • A post asking people to name a new HELL pizza after their time in lockdown – you can only imagine some of these 1,700+ comments.
  • Attaching prizes to the majority of posts as extra fuel for participation amongst the community and to keep excitement high for when HELL’s gates could reopen once more.

The content shared during this time went on to become some of HELL’s most praised and successful, while the brand’s average engagement rate on Facebook doubled that of the previous month.

They also saw significant growth on their social platforms regardless of the lockdown. In fact, HELL welcomed a net new 669 Page likes during April without running any Page Like Campaigns.

An incredible highlight that we shared was the two instructional videos produced by HELL, on how to recreate your own Mordor and Mayhem pizzas at home. With these being two mouth-watering pizzas that were missed by many and as most of us had more time on our hands than ever, it was a recipe for success.

As an additional incentive, we offered up ten Double Pizza Vouchers to some of the most impressive creations, of which there were many. The performance of the first video in particular was extraordinary, reaching 341,184 people and boasting a Cost Per Engagement of merely $0.004. Not only did it incentivise interaction, but meaningful interaction – this wasn’t a quick giggle-and-forget meme. The videos instead inspired families to come together and enjoy a night of creating one of their favourite indulgences, during a time when togetherness was needed most.