Campaigns we like: Pizza Express

Did you know 17 January was the gloomiest day of the year? I didn’t until I received an email from Pizza Express but, as you’re about to find out, the email helped to brighten up my day as it was a campaign I really liked!

The email was sent on "the most depressing day of the year" 17 January and really stood out in my inbox among the many emails which remained unopened that day. Why did it stand out? The subject line: "January 17th, gloomiest day of the year? We think not"; it was inviting, engaging and certainly aroused my curiosity.

What I was greeted with was a great newsletter.

Why this Pizza Express newsletter works
Why is this newsletter so successful? Well it provides us with statistics to share with our friends and family (on the gloomiest day of the year) and encourages us to spend time with family and good friends to get over the gloom. Tying in with Pizza Express’s friends theme, it uses “share to a friend” to promote the offers to be shared; an excellent way to encourage more people to interact with the brand.

This newsletter did not just provide one offer; it promoted multiple offers, from making a date with a friend (an offer for two) to dragging out the family (an offer for four). This helped Pizza Express to significantly increase the reach of the campaign beyond its existing subscribers.

Good use of social media
The newsletter also utilises multiple channels; it provides a different way to interact with the brand on Facebook with the idea of joining their ‘Happy Songs Playlist’ and joining the debate. It is encouraging to see brands using email to build relationships with customers by giving them different reasons to interact. In the case of Pizza Express through the use of social media, the combination of a ‘happy songs playlist’ on a cold, gloomy winter’s day was a perfect match to bring some happiness to their customers.

Overall, this campaign effectively stood out in the inbox and gave me interesting and informative creative – I liked; it offered brand engagement with customers across multiple digital communication channels and an opportunity to win prizes when I am in the restaurant

It is not the first time Pizza Express has excelled in its email marketing, using image personalisation within birthday campaigns made for a highly engaging and delightful birthday surprise. Pizza Express keeps standing out and innovating within its email campaigns and I am looking forward to seeing what it is going to try next.

James Bunting, director of strategy and research, Communicator Corp