ADC Awards
The ADC Annual Awards is the oldest continuously running industry award show in the world. Now in its incredible 102nd year, these awards celebrate the very best in advertising, digital media, graphic and publication design, packaging and product design, motion, experiential and spatial design, photography, illustration and fashion design all with a focus on artistry and craftsmanship.
Category
Food / Beverage / Food - Single
Annual ID
ADC101_PKG031M
About the Work
For years, Pizza Hut was beloved for its dine-in experience including red cups, checkered tablecloths and games of Pac-Man with pizza. But as those dine-in restaurants have mostly disappeared, so too has the Hut’s standing in the category. Our challenge was to recapture that magic and reboot it for a new generation.
Our idea was to deliver the Pizza Hut experience home for millions of customers by creating an interactive augmented reality version of the classic Pac-Man game on our pizza box. With just a pizza box and your phone, the webAR experience did just that. No app. No quarters required.
Scanning the QR code opens the experience through a mobile browser. To start play, an instructional GIF directs customers to point their phone at the maze on the box, which serves as an AR marker. Suddenly, the maze animates from the box as Pac-Man, Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde all come to life. The game was designed with three levels of increasing difficulty for casual and hardcore gamers with a global leaderboard that allowed customers to input their initials.
With 11,260 hours played, 741 million media impressions and 10.6 million Pac-Man boxes sold, this “newstalgia” activation successfully rekindled customers’ love for Pizza Hut while establishing new connections with younger generations. Technically, this Pizza Hut box even became the top-selling game console in the world for the month of March, outselling the Nintendo Switch, Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X …. combined.
Our idea was to deliver the Pizza Hut experience home for millions of customers by creating an interactive augmented reality version of the classic Pac-Man game on our pizza box. With just a pizza box and your phone, the webAR experience did just that. No app. No quarters required.
Scanning the QR code opens the experience through a mobile browser. To start play, an instructional GIF directs customers to point their phone at the maze on the box, which serves as an AR marker. Suddenly, the maze animates from the box as Pac-Man, Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde all come to life. The game was designed with three levels of increasing difficulty for casual and hardcore gamers with a global leaderboard that allowed customers to input their initials.
With 11,260 hours played, 741 million media impressions and 10.6 million Pac-Man boxes sold, this “newstalgia” activation successfully rekindled customers’ love for Pizza Hut while establishing new connections with younger generations. Technically, this Pizza Hut box even became the top-selling game console in the world for the month of March, outselling the Nintendo Switch, Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X …. combined.
2022 Awards
Total Points: 3
Merit Honor
Credits
Agency
GSD&M / Austin
Production Company
Tool of North America / Santa Monica
Chief Creative Officer
Jay Russell
Creative Director
Brandon Curl
Dale Austin
Ak Sanford
Designer
Stephen Jablonski
Executive Creative Director
Tom Hamling
Account Supervisor
Lacey Bobo
Content Producer
Justin Wilmott
Project Manager
Brittany Du Pont
Senior Digital Producer
Ryan Micklos
Senior Producer
Kaili Kubpart
Derek Richmond
Strategy Director
David Matathia
Videographer
Kelsey Sante
Jacob Toarmina
Account Manager
Morgan Spencer
Front End Developer
Mike Bodge
Lead Developer
Juan Ramon
Managing Director/Executive Producer
Nancy Hacohen
Adam Baskin
President/Executive Producer
Dustin Callif
Senior Business Affairs Manager
Desiree Townsend
Team Integrations Lead
David Forbert
UI Design
Isabel Sousa
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