Storyboard: Family Values

CiCi’s Pizza’s first national ad campaign emphasizes its family-friendly appeal.

By Margaret Littman, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 12/1/2006

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For many parents, eating out can be agita producing. Sure, there’s the benefit of not having to cook. But in exchange for the night away from the stove, there’s the anxiety about whether or not the offspring will be well-behaved, whether there will be anything on the menu they will like, and, if it is a restaurant targeted toward kids, will there be anything for an adult palate?

CiCi’s Pizza wants parents to know that they can leave all that anxiety at the door.

“If kids drop something on the floor, it is not a big deal. But CiCi’s is family-friendly, as opposed to kid-friendly, so the parents like going there, too,” explains Louise Georgeson, senior vice president and account director at Deutsch Inc., Los Angeles, CiCi’s ad agency.

For CiCi’s Pizza’s first national ad campaign, Deutsch created television commercials that help establish that message as part of the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s positioning as a low-priced, value-oriented brand for families. Approximately 60 percent of CiCi’s audience is families, higher than average for quick-serve and casual-dining restaurants, Georgeson says.

The agency created the new campaign for the 21-year-old chain to help solidify its position as it continues to expand from its southeastern roots into a national chain. With 600 units in 27 states, CiCi’s estimates that it will have 1,000 units within the next five years. Recent new markets include Chicago, Las Vegas and Phoenix. Since the ads began airing in October, CiCi’s has been receiving 100 inquiries per week from prospective franchisees.

Defining the Brand

“A lot of people do not understand CiCi’s because they do not have this kind of restaurant in their market,” President and CEO Craig Moore says of the concept, which offers a buffet stocked with salad, pasta, desserts and 16 types of pizza for less than $5. “It was important that we give them a visual so that they can see how they would experience it if they walked in to CiCi’s themselves.

“There’s a time in a little brand’s life when you have to do what we’re doing,” Moore adds. “Local media buys seem to be softening.”

The chain spent “less than $20 million” on its 2006 ad budget, an increase over the previous year, to accommodate the national ad push. The campaign includes a 15- and 30-second spot, as well as radio ads, sponsorships and billboards. The ads are airing on cable stations such as the Discovery Channel, Nick at Night, TNT and USA Network.

“The world has changed in television. It used to be more network than cable. Now, it is a 50-50 split nationwide. And this audience is cable higher than average,” Georgeson says.

The TV spots emphasize CiCi’s points of difference, from family-friendliness to affordability to a wealth of menu options. The spots use humor, but not in a way that is silly or that distract from the message.

“A lot of companies come out touting their brand from their own perspective,” Georgeson adds. “We wanted to present the brand from the consumer’s perspective.”

So the commercials depict the CiCi’s environment as not too loud or chaotic with friendly and welcoming employees, where “people treat you the way they used to,” Georgeson explains. While the ads are different from Deutsch’s previous effort for CiCi’s (Chain Leader, September 2004), there is a consistency in showing how the chain is different from its competitors and in giving consumers a view of a CiCi’s restaurant.

Looking Ahead

For all its national efforts, the chain hasn’t overlooked those markets that—at least for now—don’t have a CiCi’s Pizza restaurant. If consumers see a TV commercial and head to the CiCi’s Web site to find the location closest to them, they get a video message from Moore, who gives a quick tour of the concept.

“Maybe 40 percent of the nation does not have a CiCi’s in their area,” Georgeson explains. “We wanted to get ahead of that.”

“Our goal is to be a nationwide concept,” Moore says. “We are going to grow smart but not overextend.”

“Kids” Length: 30 seconds
1. Voice-over: Don’t do that. Sit up straight. Put that down.	2. Parents, step away from the controls.
3. Let your kids make their own choices.	4. Let them fill their cup with six different sodas.
5. Let them play video games between dinner and dessert.	6. And, if they want pizza with macaroni and cheese, by gum, they’ll get pizza topped with macaroni and cheese.
7. Welcome to CiCi’s, the endless pizza, pasta, salad and dessert buffet for just $4.49.	8. CiCi’s Pizza Buffet. Almost too good to be true.