Imo’s Pizza
Role: creative director
I grew up in Detroit. Went to college in NYC. Lived in Chicago most of my adult life and I’m here to tell you there isn’t a pizza more polarizing than St. Louis-style. And that reality is six decades of Imo’s Pizza.
Jimmy Kimmel while my team’s first campaign was in market: “It’s very, very bad pizza. Simone Biles: “That’s mean.”
Imo’s had a problem disguised as a luxury. To wit: the brand is so iconic, people will salute and defend it… even if they don’t buy it. We needed to remind them what they’re really subscribing to when they choose Imo’s. A complex web of sensations that allows you to taste nostalgia, smell comfort, see your civic identity and place an order for family togetherness.
Family business = family business budgets. Every one of these spots had an $11k production spend. We had to cast locally. As in, this one features coworkers Kayleigh and Mike.
Big thanks to star coworker Tim and the location fee-less house of our Production Assistant.
As Imo’s first-ever agency of record (check out our RFP site), our goal for Year One was to establish cohesiveness. To show how it feels to eat Imo’s. With over 100 franchisee locations across 2 states, there was as much work to be done internally as there was on the marketing side of things. Imo’s is a family business, and we promised to help them stay true to their wholesome quirks.
“When I order Imo’s for out-of-towners, I like to set their expectations by telling them it’s not pizza.”
So how’d we do? Our smart, scrappy creative work + strategic media buys netted Imo’s a 12% increase in sales for 2021. We’re rebranding their rewards program in parallel path with an app build. New retail packaging is being rolled out as we speak for Walmart and Goldbelly. And the parlors are getting redesigned to match our direction of embracing what it means to be a historic brand that you either love or love to hate.
Little BTS sizzle during the Imo’s RFP process.