Pizza Pizza is once again leaning into its accessibility messaging, with inflation in its sights.

Amid price increases at the grocery store, consumers have also been taking note of “shrinkflation” – products that may be selling for the same price as it previously did, but have less actual product inside.

Pizza Pizza references this directly in its new campaign, using squares of chocolate and sliced bread to illustrate how consumers are getting less bang for their buck. It then introduces its “Growflation Pizza” as a counter to the trend: a medium pizza for the same price as a small or, depending on how you look at it, buying a small pizza that’s actually 44% larger.

Adrian Fuoco, Pizza Pizza’s VP of marketing, says it’s part of a larger strategy launched by Pizza Pizza last year built on the brand mantra of “everyone deserves pizza.”

Last year, Pizza Pizza made the economic environment “fun and relevant” with “Fixed-Rate Pizza,” a promise that it would “lock in” the rate of an extra-large four-topping pizza for a year, which has become its number two seller after one year and eclipsed other promotions Pizza Pizza has offered for decades. The “Fixed-Rate Pizza” was so successful that Pizza Pizza has extended the offer until the end of 2023.

“It drives sales, truthfully,” Fuoco says. “These are good deals and popular programs people engage with.”

Both “Fixed-Rate Pizza” and “Growflation Pizza” are aimed at younger families and further support Pizza Pizza’s core idea that “everyone deserves pizza” by combating rising prices and diminishing portions. But Fuoco points out that the “deserving” positioning also includes pillars besides simply value, like ease of ordering, and making pizza accessible to those with dietary restrictions.

In the category, Fuoco says Pizza Pizza has national scale to get more creative in a space typically associated with repetitive radio jingles.

“If you can find a message that’s really compelling, creative and clever, maybe that helps reduce the burden on how much you have to spend blasting something on radio that isn’t breaking through.”

The competitive set, he says, is less the frozen pizza aisle or other QSRs, but rather, direct pizza competitors, particularly American chains.

The “Growflation Pizza” was created with creative agency Zulu Alpha Kilo and is being launched in a national campaign across Canada. Paid media is handled by Media Experts, including online video, social ads, display, search and OOH, while PR is managed by spPR.

During the last few years, Fuoco says Pizza Pizza is evolving its media mix out of necessity, and that while print flyers have always a big part of the pizza space, they can be expensive and limiting. It’s slowly winding that offering down, and funneling dollars into other media, like engagement with content creators and through TikTok.

According to Fuoco, the brand is active year-round and that this spend is in line with previous summer campaigns.