Boston Pizza's Fan Stories

With the casual dining market in Canada in decline, Boston Pizza challenged Taxi to expand its target audience by shifting the focus of the brand from dudes and dads to the whole family.

However, simply broadening the appeal to the whole family brought it too close to its competitive set, further challenging the agency to find the brand's differentiator in the crowded restaurant space.

Sports are part of Boston Pizza's DNA. For 50 years, it has been the place where the game is always on and where people can get together to celebrate the big wins and the little ones.

Taxi needed to turn anyone with a connection to sports into a fan of BP.

To do so, it looked at the nature of fandom. Nobody is born a fan of anything. Fans only become fans because of the extraordinary talent that players or teams demonstrate. To gain fans, you've got to earn them. And Boston Pizza felt it has the qualities to help make Canadian families — not just dudes and dads — a fan of it.

The plan included a full rebranding of Boston Pizza, from the in-restaurant experience through to television commercials, including four new television spots featuring various fan stories, a brand essence TV spot showing off the nature of fandom and a digital media campaign that focused all content through the lens of "we'll make you a fan."

It also created an updated menu that highlighted the campaign platform and a social media campaign tagged with #FanStories, encouraging user-generated content submissions.

During the promotion, wings sales increased by 23.8%, and Boston Pizza garnered 380,000 social impressions and generated 330,000 video views on YouTube.