SYDNEY: Eagle Boys has taken aim at its competitors Domino’s and Pizza Hut, attacking them in a new $1 million advertising campaign for selling smaller pizzas.
Eagle Boys commissioned GRQ Consulting and They’re Data Consultants to study pizza sizes, and claims the research found its pizzas were considerably larger than its rivals.
Scott Hamilton, national marketing manager of Eagle Boys, said Domino’s “are selling smaller pizzas than Eagle Boys and expecting customers not to notice”.
“It’s disgraceful and frankly, unAustralian, and we thought it was about time the secret was exposed,” he said.
“At Eagle Boys, the pizza shrink stops here. We have always honoured competitors’ coupons, and will continue to even though our research has demonstrated that a competitors’ 'large' pizza is not always as big as an Eagle Boys’ large pizza.”
Don Meij, Domino’s Pizza CEO, described Eagle Boys’ new campaign as “intentionally misleading”.
Meij said Domino’s had reduced the size and the price of its pizzas in response to Pizza Hut’s change of its pizza sizes last year.
“We reduced our prices up to 30%, and we think they’re [Eagle Boys] just trying to mask their increase of their prices,” he said.
“Our pricing is really competitive.”
Pizza Hut was unavailable for comment.
Eagle Boys launched the "Vote 1 Full Size Large Pizza" campaign yesterday (10 December), created by Publicis Mojo, urging consumers to sign an online petition against the smaller pizzas.
The campaign also includes a video that parodies Clemenger BBDO Sydney’s anti-speeding “Pinkie” work for the RTA, and comes with the tagline: “Delivering ‘small’ large pizzas? No one thinks big of you.” It can be viewed here.
Eagle Boys’ research involved analysing 108 of its pizzas compared with 108 from its competitors from across the country, with pizza bases divided into comparable thin, medium and deep pan categories.
“The research found that Eagle Boys pizzas were up to 10% larger than Domino’s pizzas, and sometimes up to three centimetres larger in diameter or more than 20% bigger in diameter,” Hamilton said.
Meij said there would no marketing response from Domino’s, and the company would not take legal action against Eagle Boys.
“This is silly, they’re clearly grandstanding,” he said. “We’ll let the customers decide.”
Domino’s is the market leader in pizza and, according to Nielsen Media Research, spent $11.7 million on main media advertising in the 12 months to May 2007.
Eagle Boys is the third biggest player, behind Domino’s and Pizza Hut. Nielsen figures show it spent $2.6 million on main media advertising in the past 12 months.
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