Boston Pizza is celebrating those fans who get excited about number crunching in a new campaign aimed to generate traffic during a busy time for sports.

In creative for “Fanalytics,” diners in haptic suits are electronically monitored for things like the efficacy of their dipping habits, or whether the atmosphere at home can be quantified against a boisterous one in one of Boston Pizza’s restaurants.

“We certainly want to speak to our target audience in a way that is more memorable than some of the restaurant advertising you may encounter,” says Niels van Oyen, director of marketing programs at Boston Pizza. This is the first time Boston Pizza has promoted the sports bar side of its restaurants since the pandemic began, coinciding with the beginning of both the NHL and NBA playoffs, as well as the start of baseball season.

Van Oyen tells strategy that the campaign is a great example of weaving the brand’s quirky personality through its advertising. The casual restaurant chain has also invited sports fans across the country to submit their own “Fanalytics” research proposals via social media to receive “Fanalytics Research Grants” – a cheeky name for Boston Pizza gift cards – so they can put their theories to the test, whether it’s about analyzing menu offerings, seating arrangements, technology and crowd behavior.

According to van Oyen, the brand delights in taking a more unexpected approach both to its creative, but also to its menu offerings, like its spicy pierogi pizza.

The Boston Pizza worked with John St and UM Canada on the campaign, which will be running until May 22. Media will include new TV spots narrated by play-by-play announcer Chris Cuthbert running during playoff broadcasts and other major sports programming, plus in-studio “live billboard” integrations that will play a 10-second cutdown of the spots, with on-air talent reading a script about “BP Fanalytics.”

There are also billboards in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto – the three cities with teams in the NHL playoffs – which will change depending on game outcomes and offer different up-to-date stats and figures from recent games.

Outcome triggered digital OOH is a more compelling way to come to life than a generic billboard message, van Oyen explains, and Boston Pizza could be in market hours after a game’s outcome.

There are also Reddit in-feed sponsored ads, deployed for the first time in the brand’s history to explicitly target that platform’s male-dominated audience, and also TikTok and Meta-sponsored ads.

This is one of Boston Pizza’s largest ad spends of the year, though not quite at the level of its summer patio season creative.