Pizza Hut Case Study
Industry: Food & Beverage
Service: ITG ACCELERATE®
Create a pizza that’s requested by kids… and approved by moms.
Pizza Hut knew that kids have tremendous influence over family meal decisions, especially when it comes to pizza. To bring a fresh, category-defining idea to market, Pizza Hut partnered with ITG and their Creative Consumers® associates to ideate and evaluate pizza concepts that would be highly desirable to kids and enthusiastically approved by parents.
1,940
Insights, wishes, and new product possibilities generated
12
Original concepts and prototypes tested
1
Best-selling new pizza product launched
The Challenge
When a family orders a pizza, kids often hold the veto power. Pizza Hut wanted to tap into this influence to introduce a new, groundbreaking product. The challenge was finding an idea that was fun, engaging, and authentically exciting for children (ages 10-14), while still meeting the practical expectations of the parents paying for the meal. To uncover the emotional drivers behind what kids actually wanted, the team needed to step out of the boardroom and directly into the world of their young consumers.
What Success Looked Like
Develop a fresh, highly desirable pizza concept that captured the imagination of children, satisfied the standards of parents, and resulted in a best-selling, market-ready product for Pizza Hut.
How We Got There
To truly understand the consumer mindset, ITG started with an immersive research experience. The team recruited eight Creative Consumers® associate kids (CC Kids) and sent them, along with their parents and the Pizza Hut client team, to Disney World for an afternoon. To flip the traditional dynamic, the kids were placed entirely in charge of all decisions—from rides to restaurant and food choices. This immersion gave the Pizza Hut team firsthand insight into how kids evaluate options and make decisions.
The following day, the team brought these deep insights into a highly structured ITG ACCELERATE® ideation session. Working alongside eight new CC Kids and eight Creative Consumers® associate parents, the clients interacted directly with consumers through a variety of creative exercises. An additional group of moms observed from a back room, generating their own ideas based on the live interactions. This intensive, multi-perspective approach yielded nearly 2,000 idea building blocks, which were rapidly prioritized and developed into 20 top concept outlines.
The Results
From the 12 final concepts and prototypes taken to consumer reaction groups, one clear winner emerged: the Cheesy Bites Pizza.
The product debuted with a massive Super Bowl commercial and quickly became one of Pizza Hut’s best-selling products of the time. The concept proved so successful that it is still re-launched on a regular basis. As Pizza Hut’s CMO noted at the time, “Nothing captures the attention of our customers quite like the fan favorite Cheesy Bites Pizza.”
This project used ITG ACCELERATE® — Where unfiltered consumer insights become market-ready innovations.
Turn Unfiltered Imagination Into Test-Ready Concepts.
Immersing your team in the daily lives of your audience reveals the specific tensions and unmet needs they frequently face. ITG ACCELERATE® captures those tensions and turns them into opportunities for your pipeline. Building ideas directly with the people who will buy your product ensures you launch with speed, substance, and total confidence.