In Pizza We Crust!
Reached more than 1 million people locally and generated more traffic during the lockdown.
The forced closure of hospitality due to COVID-19 was a hard hit for restaurant owners. That left us with the challenge of finding a solution together with De Pizzabakkers for this unique situation. The solution was to launch delivery at lightning speed and shift the focus from reservations and pickup to ordering and delivery. Through social media, we promoted the delivery service locally for all 23 locations with stunning results.
The question
How do we reach local residents during COVID times with De Pizzabakkers’ expanded service?
The solution
Hyper-local targeting per location at the right moments via social media.
The result
A broad reach on social media with lots of new users and far more website traffic than usual.
Goal & strategy
Because De Pizzabakkers’ restaurants had to close, we worked through solutions together in a brainstorm session. Of course, no one knew how long the lockdown would last or when restaurants would be able to reopen. That’s why we started with an initial strategy and adjusted it along the way whenever the situation required it.
The solution
Even though the restaurants had to close, the kitchens could keep running and De Pizzabakkers could keep serving pizzas. Our campaign ‘The kitchen is open’ was focused on selling pizzas in a responsible and profitable way. People could get a pizza in 2 ways:
With the Order & Pickup service, people could order and pay online to pick up their pizza at a pre-selected time. This minimized contact and prevented large groups waiting outside the restaurant.
In addition, there was the Delivery service, because many people preferred to have their pizza delivered to their door given the risk. For that, we used delivery services Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Thuisbezorgd. This allowed De Pizzabakkers to keep serving people in the region, without customers having to leave their homes.
Advertising
The main goal of the campaign was to reach as many people locally as possible and make them aware they could still enjoy De Pizzabakkers’ delicious wood-fired pizzas staying top of mind, even during the lockdown. That’s why it was crucial to get the message across clearly. And for each De Pizzabakkers location.
We chose to share this message through social media, specifically on Facebook and Instagram. That’s where De Pizzabakkers’ audience is most active. Plus, these channels gave us the targeting options we wanted: at scale, but with a very local feel.
Tobias Verhagen
Advertising specialist
“The main goal of the campaign was to reach as many people locally as possible and make them aware they could still enjoy De Pizzabakkers’ delicious wood-fired pizzas, staying top of mind, even during the lockdown.”
From reservations to ordering
At the start of the campaign, we fully shifted the website’s focus from reservations to orders. So the ‘reserve’ buttons on the homepage and the dedicated location pages were removed entirely and replaced with the delivery services available per location. We knew we had to switch fast if the situation changed. That’s why we used smart solutions, so we could quickly switch everything back to reservations as soon as it was possible again.
De Pizzabakkers has 23 locations, a large part of which are franchised. To get the social campaign up and running quickly, we set up the social ads for all locations through De Pizzabakkers’ main account. By giving each location its own ad set, we could define a dedicated targeting area.
Since the delivery services only delivered within a 2-kilometer radius, we limited location targeting to that area. This also ensured locations wouldn’t compete with each other and only advertised within their own area.
Local reach
The main goal of the campaign was to reach as many people locally as possible and make them aware they could still enjoy De Pizzabakkers’ delicious wood-fired pizzas staying top of mind, even during the lockdown. That’s why it was crucial to get the message across clearly. And for each De Pizzabakkers location.
We chose to share this message through social media, specifically on Facebook and Instagram. That’s where De Pizzabakkers’ audience is most active. Plus, these channels gave us the targeting options we wanted: at scale, but with a very local feel.
We also wanted our ads to show only when a location was open, and on quieter days when they could use a bit more attention. That way, people saw pizza ads at the right moment, the moment they get hungry. This tapped into a real demand and gave us a better chance of getting people to take action. To make this possible, we set a lifetime budget per location.
A major challenge of this campaign was measurement. Because De Pizzabakkers uses an external system that can’t be connected to Facebook or Google Analytics, we couldn’t see whether the campaigns actually drove orders. That’s why we had to work closely together: each week we were told which locations performed well and which lagged behind. Based on that, we adjusted the budget per location for the following week.
The result
The campaign kept De Pizzabakkers locally visible and relevant during the lockdown. With hyper-targeted social ads, we reached over 1 million people around the 23 locations.
Website traffic increased significantly, with many new visitors who wanted to order right away. By optimizing per location for reach and conversion, De Pizzabakkers got the most out of delivery and pickup and stayed top of mind in a tough period.
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