What keeps Adrian Fuoco up at night?

In this series, we ask top industry execs and marketers across the country about their biggest fears and concerns. What is the stuff of marketing nightmares? This week, we caught up with Adrian Fuoco, chief marketing officer for Pizza Pizza. 

Fuoco was named to the top marketing role in June. He handles marketing for Pizza Pizza, Pizza 73, which is in Alberta and PZA Pizzeria restaurants across Canada and Mexico. Fuoco leads brand strategy, sales, media planning, consumer research, sponsorship activations and promotions and managing agency relationships. 

What’s keeping you up at night?

Initially, I was going to say the issue of wallet tightening and people’s finances, because I think that’s near the top of the list, but I thought I’d try something different. What’s interesting for me, but also concerning and exciting is the unbelievable diversification and disruption that’s happening in our industry and in general: areas you thought you owned as a business, someone can very quickly jump into it. This is happening more and more. The example I would use for us is that recently Tim Hortons got into selling pizza, and it’s not like it’s a major issue for us, but it just goes to show that everyone out there is doing the same thing, looking for new opportunities to grow sales, connect with new customers and move into new day parts.

We’re guilty of it. We introduced poutine two years ago, and that disrupted all the poutine players. And now, for us, Tim Hortons [with] all 3,500 plus locations selling pizzas…you never know what area of your business is going to be a new challenge and new area to need to protect. That was something that gave me pause. Where else are we  really strong, either in terms of our marketing or in terms of key categories and asking, are we strong enough? What would we do if we were disrupted?

For the longest time, pizza chain marketing was all promos and jingles. Why is it important to be more creative in the current milieu?

One of the reasons is the diversification of media. It used to be come up with a clever jingle about a deal and go crazy on radio and you’ll probably see success. I like radio, but that’s not enough anymore. You’re only going to connect that message with one group of people. OK, well, let’s put that jingle on TikTok, and we’ll get a whole other group. Well, you probably won’t. It probably won’t work there. You’re forced, which I think it’s a good thing, to say we need to be different. We can’t just be a one-trick pony in terms of our messaging, and [we] need to have multiple ways to connect with different people from different generations who consume media differently and have different priorities in their lives. An example is that younger, Gen Z cohort, which is so critical for us. It’s always our number one customer. Do they really care about a family value bundle? Maybe later in life they will. Right now, it’s about convenience, speed and tapping into their lifestyle and things they are interested in. You have to be more diverse, and it requires a broader variety of messages and media mix.

To what extent are occasions beyond the Super Bowl, increasingly key when it comes to connecting with consumers?

It’s huge. And you know what? It is potentially even growing. You have brands out there, and we are fairly good in this regard, trying to find new ones. It’s almost like Hallmark [holidays], but we are not creating new occasions necessarily. What are non-traditional [occasions]? The big ones in our industry are Super Bowl, New Year’s Eve, Halloween and Canada Day. Well, everyone is going after those like crazy as that’s where the money’s at. We’re good at this. What about Valentine’s Day, traditionally something for full-service restaurants? Well, maybe some people don’t want to go out, maybe they want to eat pizza. Or 4/20 of course. That one there is interesting, as you have to have courage. Are we comfortable with connecting ourselves to that occasion? Also, do people celebrate that occasion by eating pizza? We’d say definitely. You can do well in tried and true occasions, and new ones. A real win on one of those days, can really make your month.

How have dietary trends informed how you market day-to-day, or is that more on the innovation side?

It’s less so on the day-to-day, but we may do lighter promotion offers during the summer as people are a little less inclined to carb-load. At the beginning of the year, people are looking for fewer calories. We will do that. More so though, it’s attached to new lifestyle trends that make sense for people. Sometimes it’s lifestyle, sometimes it’s out of necessity. If you decide you don’t want to eat meat, we want to make sure we have vegetarian options for you. Gluten-free, keto, cauliflower crust for people who want less wheat in their diet, those are big adaptations that happened let’s say in the last decade. An area where there’s still more opportunity to explore, is some of the dietary needs associated with people’s faith as demographics change. For example, halal is becoming increasingly important to have options for people. How halal-friendly is your restaurants? How halal-friendly are you ingredients? Do you have a halal-specific menu? You can make it easier for people and you should do it.

What’s something marketers in other categories don’t appreciate about QSR?

To be successful in QSR, in my experience, you have to have your plans at 80% done all the time. There’s so much happening: external disruptions, events, the weather or a new food trend drops in your lap. Are you going to sit there and say, “that’s not in our 2024 plan, so let’s slot it into 2025 or 2026?” We don’t have that luxury. We are always very strategic. In terms of bandwidth and budget, if we see something that’s an opportunity, we’ll pivot and make it happen.