Papa John’s Gaming

In early 2018, Creative Director Cody Daniels and I spearheaded a pitch for Papa John's North Texas to speak to the gaming audience. The client bought in. Cody and I shared strategy, and I was the sole writer for every piece of creative, from media to V/O to organic social and social listening.

ROI per gamer social post increased 171% versus non-gamer posts, with an average of 49% more engagement. Paid media generated an ROI of $9.93, and over 44% of those customers were new to Papa John’s. Social listening during BlizzCon 2018 generated an ROI of $12.36 and over $26,000 in sales — with no media support whatsoever.

QuakeCon was our ultimate triumph. We set up a booth at QuakeCon 2019 to sell pizza 24/7 to gamers from all over the world, and kept a steady social media presence in owned channels and in QuakeCon’s Discord server. That weekend we drove 3,690 pizza sales — the franchise system’s best-selling weekend to date. We also collected over 2,000 emails for the Papa John’s system.

The final result: online brand sentiment toward Papa John’s — toxic from repeated PR disasters — shifted from 80% negative to 60% positive.