Buddy’s Pizza hired Franco to support the brand’s 65th anniversary with public relations and social media support to raise awareness of its Detroit-style Pizza among a younger audience and bring people back to its original location in Detroit.
To do this, Franco:
- Developed a program to promote the restaurant’s 65thanniversary and the Buddy’s Pizza Motor City Pizza Collection
- Conceptualized a Kid Rock-approved Badass Detroiter pizza that used Kid Rock’s Badass Beer in the crust
- Secured an annual Buddy’s Pizza Day in Detroit with a resolution from the Detroit City Council and a proclamation from the Mayor
- Developed strong social media following by creating Buddy’s Pizza’s first Facebook page and Instagram feed and managing an active Twitter feed and online contests
- Established creative partnerships such as with the Alliance for the Great Lakes to promote the Made in Michigan Great Lakes Pizza Collection
- Strengthened existing partnerships with creative concepts such as the Buddy Bones charitable program for all-natural pizza crust dog treats with the Michigan Humane Society
- Coordinated and executed the opening of new Buddy’s Pizza locations in
- Shelby Township and Novi.
In the first year alone, Franco’s efforts earned 155 placements from 92 media outlets and reached an audience of nearly 77 million people. That’s more than one Buddy’s media placement every day and a half! Franco also grew Buddy’s Pizza Facebook followers by 584 percent and Twitter following by 487 percent.
As a result, Buddy’s reported increased pizza sales by 10 percent company-wide, attributing it in part to PR and social media services provided by Franco.
Following the first year’s success, Franco became Buddy’s agency of record. Franco positioned Buddy’s as the original Detroit-style pizza, maintaining consistent media exposure in Michigan and securing national media placements from the New York Times, CBS This Morning, GQ, The Cooking Channel and the Food Network. Franco has supported six Buddy’s product launches and multiple grand opening events, including hard hat tours, media previews, and influencer and blogger relations.
In addition to promoting Detroit-style pizza throughout Buddy’s social media communities, Franco also leads Buddy’s digital media and web strategy providing SEO and SEM campaigns, website content strategy and development and targeted email marketing campaigns.
