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Pizza Refill
Agency Leo Burnett / Toronto + Diamond Marketing / Toronto + Edelman / Toronto + Wavemaker / Toronto
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Category
Stunts & Activations
Annual ID
OS24_SM086M
About the Work
Context:
In 2023, Pizza Hut launched a new ‘light and airy’ (medium thickness) crust option. And while it was new to us, this offering was seen as a staple at every other pizza place.
Challenge/Objective:
The pizza market is flooded with light and airy crust options—from big chains, to local pizzerias, to frozen grocery store pizzas. To build hype around the brand’s latest crust, we needed to stand out from the rest, giving our Gen Z target a reason to consider, visit, and try Pizza Hut beyond traditional advertising.
Our objective? Connect with Gen Z and bring Pizza Hut top of mind come pizza time.
Solution:
With our target going elsewhere for their pizza fix, we looked to our competitors to help promote the Hut. How? By turning an empty pizza box from them into fresh pizza from us. Pizza Refill was a one-day only event where customers could bring in any empty box from any competitor and Pizza Hut would refill it for free.
Our campaign took a digital-first approach to reach our digital-native Gen Z target, with a strong presence on TikTok.
Through the campaign, we were able to let people know where to find their nearest Hut, while also turning a visit to our competitors into a revisit to us.
Results:
The campaign boosted Pizza Hut’s cultural cred, seeing huge lifts across its social channels—the highest in the Hut’s history.
Social fandom:
+28% in TikTok followings.
78.5% of views came from organic FYP placements.
27x new followers across all socials (vs a typical week).
Competitive buzz:
Pizza Hut overtook Domino's for the #1 spot in brand buzz (YouGov).
Our following grew 170% faster than competitors.
Placed top of mind among Gen-Z, with 52.2M impressions.
Bottom line:
We increased traffic to stores by 100% when compared to the average of the previous seven Mondays. This also led to a 10% increase in total paid medium pizzas sold compared to the average of previous seven Mondays—customers actually paid to add additional pizzas to their free pizza refill! This was a resounding success, bringing traffic to our stores to try (and buy) our new Handcrafted Crust.
In 2023, Pizza Hut launched a new ‘light and airy’ (medium thickness) crust option. And while it was new to us, this offering was seen as a staple at every other pizza place.
Challenge/Objective:
The pizza market is flooded with light and airy crust options—from big chains, to local pizzerias, to frozen grocery store pizzas. To build hype around the brand’s latest crust, we needed to stand out from the rest, giving our Gen Z target a reason to consider, visit, and try Pizza Hut beyond traditional advertising.
Our objective? Connect with Gen Z and bring Pizza Hut top of mind come pizza time.
Solution:
With our target going elsewhere for their pizza fix, we looked to our competitors to help promote the Hut. How? By turning an empty pizza box from them into fresh pizza from us. Pizza Refill was a one-day only event where customers could bring in any empty box from any competitor and Pizza Hut would refill it for free.
Our campaign took a digital-first approach to reach our digital-native Gen Z target, with a strong presence on TikTok.
Through the campaign, we were able to let people know where to find their nearest Hut, while also turning a visit to our competitors into a revisit to us.
Results:
The campaign boosted Pizza Hut’s cultural cred, seeing huge lifts across its social channels—the highest in the Hut’s history.
Social fandom:
+28% in TikTok followings.
78.5% of views came from organic FYP placements.
27x new followers across all socials (vs a typical week).
Competitive buzz:
Pizza Hut overtook Domino's for the #1 spot in brand buzz (YouGov).
Our following grew 170% faster than competitors.
Placed top of mind among Gen-Z, with 52.2M impressions.
Bottom line:
We increased traffic to stores by 100% when compared to the average of the previous seven Mondays. This also led to a 10% increase in total paid medium pizzas sold compared to the average of previous seven Mondays—customers actually paid to add additional pizzas to their free pizza refill! This was a resounding success, bringing traffic to our stores to try (and buy) our new Handcrafted Crust.
2024 Awards
Total Points: 3
Merit
Credits
Agency
Leo Burnett / Toronto
Media Agency
Wavemaker / Toronto
PR / Marketing Agency
Diamond Marketing / Toronto, ON
Edelman / Toronto, ON
Associate Creative Director
Marianne Lau
Chief Strategy Officer
Tahir Ahmad
Composer
Mike Henley
Colin Brown
Director
Cameron Marshall
Editor
Ryan Tomka
Executive Creative Director
Kohl Forsberg
Executive Producer
Terry Theofilactidis
Art Director / Content Creator
Kass Palter
Co-Chief Creative Officer
Lisa Greenberg
Steve Persico
Copywriter / Content Creator
Dylan Kloek
Creative Director & Casting
Didier Tovel
Digital Senior Strategist
Natalie Legault
DoP
Andrew Wilcox
Group Strategy Director
Pooja Beri
Senior Art Director
Matthew McDonald
Senior Copywriter
Layton Wu
Senior Producer
Jesse Katzev
Rosanna Rassat
Senior Strategist
Aleeza Yermus
SVP, Creative Director
Dave Stevenson
Account Director
Graham Copestake
Shae Pollock
Account Executive
Vanessa Niragira
Alice Fortuniak
Assistant Media Planner
Heman Madan
Associate Director
Shakira Moore
Associate Marketing Manager
Daniela Di Vito
Chief Brand Officer
Daniel Meynen
Directrice de Comptes
Ariane Gauthier Roy
DP/Director
Reid Marshall
Engineer
Alex Gluch
Group Account Director
Scott Lyons
Dan Boem
Colleen Kelly
Integrated Project Manager
Jessica Rinaldi
Line Producer
Tyler Reid
Managing Director, Account Services
Natasha Dagenais
Marketing Director
Jennifer Ligotti
Media Planner
Rachella Du
Motion Graphics
Dan Purdy
President
Ben Tarr
Nancy Rozender
Productrice Senior
Josée Lalonde
Senior Account Executive
Jeene Sulaivany
Superviseure de Comptes
Catherine Salloum Yared
Traducteur-rédacteur
Alexandre Lessard
Vice President
Genevieve Cote
VP, Post & Print Production
Gord Cathmoir
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