Pita Pit Marries Franchise Advertising, March Madness

1851 wrote previously about how latching on to current events, including basketball season, is a simple way to give marketing efforts a boost while appealing to a large demographic. It’s a lesson well-learned by the folks at Pita Pit.

Earlier in the month, the franchise announced the MVPita Bracket Challenge. Think of it as March Madness for flatbread – a contest between 16 pitas with the winner being determined by the brand’s Facebook fans.

Every round includes a fan be awarded a Pita Pit gift card each day, while the grand prize winner stands to win free Pita Pit for a year.

“This is a time of year when everyone has bracket fever, so why not get our pitas in on the fun?” Corey Bowman, president of Pita Pit USA, said in a media release. “Our fans are passionate about their pitas, so now we have a way to determine truly which pita is the absolute best.”

As highlighted by Fast Casual, the MVPita Bracket Challenge is a rather ingenious piece of online marketing. Not only does it get a natural boost from consumers who are already going bananas for brackets, it also engages customers directly, putting them in charge of how the contest plays out.

Speaking to Fast Casual, Pita Pit Digital Marketing Manager Jordy Patano spotlighted how the campaign is in keeping with the brand’s image, as well.

"One of the things over the years that Pita Pit has been known for is having a strong personality," Patano said. "Especially early on because we were primarily in college markets. One of the things we were working on with our marketing team, we started talking about ‘if these pitas were a school’ what would they be? That led to what we are doing with this campaign."

Read the full story here.