Papa Johns today (Dec. 12) announced the appointment of The Martin Agency as its national creative agency of record and Carat U.S. as its national media agency of record, per a press release shared with Marketing Dive. Both will begin their work with the pizza chain in January.
The appointments follow a review process launched in August. Both The Martin Agency and Carat pitched Papa Johns on insight-driven strategies that could help the brand drive relevance and appeal, improve audience targeting, boost loyalty and create cultural buzz, according to the press release.
“In Martin and Carat US, we discovered partners who fully embrace our ambition to be the best global pizza company,” said Papa Johns CMO Mark Shambura in a statement. “They each leverage cutting-edge technology to deliver actionable insights, share our value of ‘It’s pizza — it has to be FUN’ and, notably, prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Dentsu’s Carat U.S. will handle domestic media buying and planning across channels as Papa Johns aims to foster stronger performance with a focus on “people-based marketing.” Meanwhile, The Martin Agency will be responsible for crafting a strategic marketing vision, including through an upcoming omnichannel campaign that will span TV, online video, digital content, paid social, media sponsorships and owned brand platforms.
“Go to Google Trends and type ‘pizza.’ Now put it up against Barbie, pumpkin spice latte, or just about any celeb you can think of. Pizza wins every time. Because people love pizza more than almost anything. Unfortunately, too many people think pizza is pizza and will order from anywhere,” said Jerry Hoak, executive creative director at The Martin Agency, in a statement. “We’re excited to work with Papa Johns and Carat to change that, and we feel fortunate for this opportunity to prove all pizzas aren’t equal.”
Shambura joined Papa Johns in May after more than four years as CMO at Mod Pizza, a fast-growing rival, with a spotlight on his analytics-led approach to marketing. Pile and Company was retained to handle the agency review.
