Great Creative!

I think it's best when creative executions have images of people on them. I learned early on when sightseeing, it's one thing to take a picture of a mountain or statue, which are often very interesting in real life, but can be pretty dull in a picture. But if you add a person to the image, then it can get much more interesting. Who is that? What are they doing? Now the picture tells a story. This pizza box has such a bold image of Patrick Swayze it draws the viewer in.

And eBay

I was wondering when one of these would show up on eBay!
We've had many boxes show up on eBay. It's a badge of honor!

Flickr find

Here's another box that someone thought was interesting and engaging enough to post on Flickr.com. You can see it here... http://www.flickr.com/photos/cru/3029325490/

Pizza in Chief!

It's no surprise President Elect Obama is big pizza eater. The two demographics that eat pizza the most are college students, but indexing even higher are upscale dual income families with school age kids. So a pizza box ad with Mangia Media could someday make it to the White House...Hmmm, on second thought we've produced over a hundred million pizza box ads, so maybe one already has. ;-)

Here's a couple of new boxes. Blackberry and Boost Mobile. These are good examples of spot printing. Blackberry is 2 colors, blue and black. While Boost has 3 separate colors. Spot printing is more economical than 4-color process printing and it can be as powerful when exectuted well like in these examples.

And Now a Word from Our Client

Here's what makes it all worthwhile...
"It was a total hit!
Looking forward to doing this again soon!"
MyNetwork TV for Smackdown

Our Plant

One of the keys to our success is that we are a partnership with a manufacturer of pizza boxes who has 20 years experience. So when our clients boxes are printed, we don't have to bid out production, wait for a supplier, or worry about any of that. We just place them in production and the boxes are made and seamlessly placed into pizzerias. I love going into the plant and watching the boxes come off the production line. Pizza box ads are a nice form of media in that you can actually hold them in your hands (vs say a radio spot).

Another one for Showtime

About a Month ago I posted that Showtime's Weeds/Californication campaign which included pizza box ads was up for an award. Well, they're at it again. The campaign is now up for a CTAM Mark Award. We wish them the best of luck. And for the record, Mangia Media campaigns have already won several Mark Awards for our clients. We look forward to helping them again!

Video by pizza box fan

http://www.livevideo.com/video/jdplvy07/6B0A110C152A477AB25CA42D908B37CF/wwe-pizza-box.aspx
Click on the above link for a video posted by a fan of WWE and pizza box ads. This guys' excitement about getting a pizza box ad pretty much sums up the effectiveness of pizza box advertising.

Another New One!

We have a long history (well relatively speaking) with WWE. We've promoted Wrestlemania's, pay per views, WWF on USA, and now WWE SMACKDOWN on MyNetwork TV.
Check out the box, and notice the affliate ID, we were able to change that out for the client for many many markets!

Superbowl Ads On NBC Almost Sold Out

The big news today is that Superbowl ads on NBC TV are almost sold out.
"The National Football League season is only a week old, but General Electric's NBC Universal says it has already sold about 85% of the available spots, up from the 60% that is standard this time of year. The robust sales pace comes despite an estimated 10% price increase from the last Super Bowl, and NBC says there are only about 10 spots left."
Not to worry, Mangia Media has availability for pizza box ads during the Superbowl (which just happens to be the busiest pizza day of the year!) So you maybe you can't get a 30 second spot during the Superbowl...but you can get a 30 minute ad with Mangia Media

OOH Media Plan Award Finalist

The OAAA has announced their OOH Media plan award finalists. One of the finalists is Outdoor Services for the Showtime programs Weeds and Californication. We produced a great looking box for this campaign so we are pleased to play our small part. Making our clients look good is what we are all about!

Latest and greatest

Here are the new boxes. They look great. One is for ABC TV's programming on DVD, and the other is for the new game show "Opportunity Knocks", also on ABC. TV and pizza, the perfect match!

New Boxes!

I expect to have some new boxes in hand today. And I can't wait to see them. After 8 years and roughly 200 different boxes, I am surprised how anxious I am to see these. I still get a thrill seeing new boxes (especially with good creative). The campaigns aren't scheduled to start for a few more days, so I'll have to wait before I post them, but they are very cool. Whenever I see a new box, it reminds me of the time 8 years ago when I saw our first ad that was for the History Channel (who is still a fequent client). And the time I saw our first 4-color process box (7 years ago!). It was for the movie 8 Legged Freaks and it blew us away. (above)

What are we?

I find it ironic that pizza box advertising is classed as "out of home". Since most take out and delivery pizza is eaten IN THE HOME. So the ad is seen in the home, near the TV, computer, phone, and usually in a group. Should we be classed as print like a magazine? Yes, the ad is printed on the box, and instead of a bunch of articles you have a pizza as the content. How about interactive? Since everyone interacts with the media by sticking their hand in the box and grabbing a slice (or three). We are also classed as "non-traditional" media, which I guess we are...though I was surprised to hear a media buyer refer to us as "Traditional Out of Home" the other day. Whatever we are called or classed as, the point is pizza box ads are pretty powerful stuff...A rose by any other name...

Pizza tops Mobile ad search...

Pizza Dominates Mobile Directory Enquiries

"Tellme Networks has published the results of a nationwide survey of US adults about consumer phone behavior and attitudes. The study, conducted by Harris Interactive, uncovers key generational differences and similarities in Directory Assistance use among Millennials (Age 18-28), GenXers (Age 29-40) and Boomers (Age 41-60). The study shows that the businesses people search for on the phone - from where to eat, to where to shop, to what to do [ clearly reflect the varied needs and tastes of different demographic groups and lifestyle segments.

Yet, one passion that spans across all age groups is the desire for pizza, as pizza parlors topped the list of 411 restaurant requests....

The study shows that among the 411 restaurant requests, the convenience of pizza takeout makes pizza parlors the most popular."

Another testament to the popularity of pizza, along with the appropriateness of the media for mobile phone co's.

Across the Board...

August is usually pretty slow...almost everyone's on vacation. Except this year (well maybe almost everyone's still on vacation, but those that are still at work are asking for proposals). And what's interesting is we are still getting a broad mix of requests for pizza box advertising. 4-Color Pizza Box Ads, 2-Color Pizza Box Ads, flyers on pizza boxes. And you know what? It's all good. Whatever the format, we can deliver.

Mac Knows College Students Love Pizza

Here's a new ad from Apple's Mac where they use a pizza as a lure for college students...
One reviewer of the ad said...
"Pizza Box is the gem of the bunch, where PC hides in a pizza box and tries to lure customers away from Mac, who has the number one notebook on college campuses. PC, talking out of a pizza box, gets quite upset naming all the qualities making Mac so popular. In the end, he goes back into his unusually-large pizza box and calls would-be devourers to "come eat me, I'm a delicious pizza."

Nice!

Here's another dude digging on a pizza box ad.
http://www.gamesniped.com/2008/04/23/meta-gear-solid-3-pizza-box/
Here's what they thought...
"Meta Gear Solid 3 Pizza BoxWritten by Link on 23rd April, 2008This is one of the best auctions I’ve run across lately. It’s a fracking Metal Gear Solid Pizza Box. That right, a Pizza Box."

Michael Phelps and Mangia Media...

What do Michael Phelps the gold medal phenom and Mangia Media have in commmon? They are both powered by pizza!
"Or Monday night, when he stuffed himself with pizza and pasta...
If Phelps had to do more than eat pizza, wake up, show up and take off his iPod to win the race, then it wasn’t much...
It was just a regular day. He predicts he’d later receive two massages, text message with friends, take a nap and get some more pizza. This may be getting boring for him."
GO USA!

Attachments a Trend?

In the 8 years since we created pizza box advertising, we've done occasional campaigns with various attachments... flyers, samples, etc. Lately I've noticed a significant increase in these types of campaigns. We are affixing more flyers (with and without offers or promos), more product samples, DVD's and the like. Whether this is a trend or a wave, it's interesting and we have in house capabilities to affix anything to pizza boxes, with or without ads (as long as the thing being attached is appropriately thin. ;-)

Were there ads on the boxes?

Here's an interesting tidbit from the campaign trail...

"And the campaign is staging colorful photo ops. Wednesday, McCain delivered a couple of pizzas to a fire house in Chillicothe, Ohio."

So McCain delivered some pizzas to a firehouse. I wonder if any of our ads were on the box? And you can tell the pizzas were from an independent pizzeria...not a chain.

And eBay Too!

On the same note, we've seen our clients pizza box ads sell on eBay for upwards of $50...for a used pizza box. Here's one that just showed up.

http://cgi.ebay.com/GRAND-THEFT-AUTO-4-IV-PIZZA-BOX-RARE-PROMO-LOOK_W0QQitemZ130243070507QQihZ003QQcategoryZ139973QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Only 5hrs left to get this cool grand theft auto box! ;-)

Making an impact

Every few weeks I visit http://www.flickr.com/ and look for pictures of pizza box ads we've produced for our clients. I often find a new one, and here's the latest on the right.

Or Visit here http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelinashoots/2703248213/

Someone named Angelina thought the box was cool enough to take a picture of, and then post the picture to flickr. I'd say that's pretty engaging!

Star Showcase Planning

For the past several years we have exhibited at the Star Showcase in NYC. This is a "tradeshow" for the outdoor advertising industry. We always make our entire booth out of pizza boxes. Note, even the chairs are made of pizza boxes.

Well we're thick in the planning for this years show in September, and we just ordered our "tchotchkes" or free goodie to give out at the show. They are really fun and we are looking forward to giving them out.

Why Blog?

It's funny, but as a kid no one thinks "when I grow up I want to start a new form of advertising...ads on pizza boxes." But that's exactly what happened. And for the past 8 years my work day (and much of my life) has revolved around Mangia Media and pizza box advertising. Since this is the "Soul Focus" of my business, we spend a lot of time and energy fine tuning our capabilities and working to make the media even better for our clients.

So I'm starting a blog to post my thoughts and experiences both for my own "record", and to share them with whoever is interested ( probably just a select number of advertising professionals and my mother).

Interestingly, starting the blog is a bit like starting a business. At this point, I'm not sure where it will end up, but I'm looking forward to the ride!