Objective

The core idea driving this work was to transform a product relaunch into genuine entertainment. Little Caesars needed to reintroduce its highly demanded Pretzel Crust Pizza in a crowded QSR landscape where traditional advertising was increasingly ignored. Our specific goals were to:

1. Break through the noise: Cut through the "it's back" clutter by creating content so compelling that audiences would actively choose to watch it, rather than skip it.
    
2. Honor fan obsession: Validate and amplify the extreme, often hyperbolic, devotion of Pretzel Crust fans by integrating their own words and passion directly into the creative.
    
3. Generate cultural conversation: Create a phenomenon that extended beyond paid media, sparking organic buzz, FOMO, and discussion across social channels and pop culture outlets.
    
4. Drive engagement and viewership: Achieve significant watch time and audience retention on a long-form branded series, proving that a pizza launch could compete with mainstream entertainment.
    

We aimed to achieve this by producing "Pretzel Crust Island," a scripted reality competition series that fully committed to the genre's tropes, humor, and interactive elements, ultimately making the return of Pretzel Crust Pizza a must-see cultural even

Strategy

We brought Pretzel Crust Island to life by treating it like a real reality series from day one—not as a campaign asset, but as a show.

Plan of action
We started by reverse‑engineering the format from two sources: the way people actually consume video (bingeable, long‑form, reality‑driven) and the way Pretzel Crust fans talk online (loud, unhinged, and weirdly poetic). The plan was to merge those: build a scripted, reality‑style competition where the jokes, challenges, and emotional stakes were all rooted in real fan hyperboles commented on social media.

From there, we defined three core principles:

1. Commit fully to the reality TV format—no halfway parody.
2. Let fan comments drive the creative, not just decorate it.
3. Design every moment to be both watchable as a full episode and clippable in feed.

Execution and key features:
We wrote Pretzel Crust Island as a multi‑episode, long‑form series hosted by comedian Flula Borg, with a clear narrative spine: contestants competing for the “ultimate” prize—one Pretzel Crust Pizza.

Key creative choices:

• Tone: Play the absurd premise (one pizza as a grand prize) completely straight. The contestants care deeply; the show treats that seriously. That contrast is where the comedy lives.
• Challenges: Each challenge is pulled from real fan hyperboles—turned into physical, visual set‑pieces designed to read instantly in a scroll or as a YouTube thumbnail.
• Eliminations: Losers are theatrically drenched in cheddar cheese sauce—a ridiculous, sticky visual that reinforces both the humor and the brand.
• Interactivity: We scripted alternate endings so fan voting in the YouTube comments could credibly determine the winner, without breaking the story arc.

We shot and cut the series with the pacing and craft of modern streaming reality: cold opens, confessionals, dramatic music cues, reaction shots, and cliffhangers that genuinely encourage the next‑episode click.

Challenges and how we solved them:

• Balancing brand and story: The risk was either over‑branding (and losing credibility as “real” entertainment) or under‑branding (and losing the point). We solved this by making the product the motivation and the punchline, not the interruption: everything is about Pretzel Crust, but no one stops the story to talk about it.
• Making long‑form watchable as an ad: We focused every script pass on tension and comedy first, branding second. If a scene didn’t earn its place as entertainment, it didn’t make the cut—regardless of how “on‑message” it was.

What makes it unique:

Pretzel Crust Island is not a film attached to a media plan; it is the media plan. It’s a long‑form, scripted reality show built from fan comments, executed with the rigor of a real series, and released where people already go to be entertained—proving a pizza launch can justify a full episode, not just a pre‑roll.

Results

Our efforts were a resounding success, directly meeting all objectives.

1. Breaking through the noise: The campaign generated 51.8 million impressions in just two weeks, significantly surpassing Little Caesars’ entire 2024 Instagram footprint. This demonstrates a clear breakthrough in a cluttered QSR market, proving the long-form entertainment approach cut through where traditional ads would have been ignored.

2. Honoring fan obsession: With 7.05 million episode views and an average audience retention of 52.3%, fans actively engaged with content built from their own words. Comments across platforms showed viewers treating Pretzel Crust Island like a real reality show, picking favorites and demanding Season 2—validating their obsession was not just acknowledged, but celebrated.

3. Generating cultural conversation: 30.7 million impressions came from non-boosted custom media, indicating widespread organic buzz. The series sparked genuine FOMO and discussion, with fans calling it “absolute cinema” and engaging in conversations typically reserved for mainstream entertainment, extending its reach far beyond owned channels.

4. Driving engagement and viewership: The high view count and exceptional retention rate (52.3%) for long-form branded content prove we successfully earned and held audience attention, competing effectively with non-branded entertainment.

Pretzel Crust Island didn't just announce a product; it created a cultural moment, proving that by prioritizing entertainment and fan engagement, a brand can achieve unprecedented reach and affinity.

Media