Hell’s pizza-and-fireworks campaign has proved to be sales dynamite, with the company recording its busiest week ever over Halloween and Guy Fawkes.
Sales records for the same week last year were blown to smithereens, with the company achieving 31 percent higher sales in 2014.
This year Hell Pizza ran a fireworks delivery service, a first in New Zealand, using the ordering and distribution network it has in place for pizza.
At the same time it ran its HELLoween special offering $13 double pizzas for customers who had the magic password (Candyman).
Hell has lots to celebrate – this is the third time this year it has broken its weekly sales record, and, year to date, its group sales are up 8.2 percent on 2013.
Hell general manager Ben Cumming says both pizza and fireworks sales contributed to the record week.
“As well as the impressive fireworks revenue generated, pizza sales were also well up over the period. Many customers ordered fireworks with their pizza and there is great potential to develop this combination further,” he says.
The first fireworks campaign was an undeniable success, and something the company will definitely be doing next year.
“You can’t argue with record sales – from a revenue point of view it was fantastic,” Cumming says.
He says they’re even more excited about doing the promotion next year because they can see what worked and what didn’t.
“It was hard work getting the logistics sorted but it was such a good learning curve, such a different business for us. For next time around we think we can do a much better job of giving the customer what they want.”
This includes tweaking their marketing message so potential customers fully grasp what’s on offer.
“You think it’s quite a simple thing to tell people you’re selling fireworks, but it’s such an unusual offering for a company like this.”
One of the most pleasing, and no doubt relieving, things for the company was the lack of any health and safety incidents for concern.
“There were no instances of people being delivered fireworks who were underage or intoxicated, so the message really got through to the staff which gives us confidence to do it next year,” Cumming says.
The company has just launched its campaign around the next big calendar date. The ‘Rudolph’ pizza, featuring rosemary venison, comes just in time to create some awkward questions for Mum and Dad at Christmas.