Nothing Doing

Duane Hart figures that Brittany Boyce got the better end of last summer’s Be the DiGiorno Delivery Guy game.

Boyce won $100,000 and a PT Cruiser for doing “nothing” — just what a delivery person for a store-bought pizza brand should do. Hart, on the other hand, worked hard to get that “nothing” going.

As liaison for DiGiorno’s biggest-ever promotion, Hart coordinated work with parent Kraft Foods’ consumer products, packaging, logistics, and manufacturing groups as well as with agencies 141 Communicator and FCB, both Chicago.

One task on the front end let Hart stand for a moment in Boyce’s shoes: He helped script the phone messages that entrants heard when they called to enter an on-pack code. “It was a kick to hear the winning message,” says Hart. “I was excited just sitting at my desk listening.”

The results were exciting, too: DiGiorno’s first-half sales rose 7.5 percent to $192 million, per Information Resources, Inc. The April-through-August promo (ad support ran mid-April through mid-May) helped boost the brand nearly eight percent to $373 million for the 52 weeks ended Dec. 2, per IRI.

Kraft recruited Hart in 1998 when he finished his MBA at the University of Michigan. Since he interned with the pizza division in 1997, he was eager to return. Since then, he’s worked on DiGiorno’s 1998 PGA Tour tie-in, a 1999 sweeps for Jack’s Pizza, and Kraft’s 2000 Game of Life mega-promo.

“I’ve learned to always be consumer-friendly,” says the 28-year-old. “Sometimes, we marketing types talk to ourselves and forget to look at the business as consumers.”

Now senior associate brand manager, Hart serves as marketing point man for the pizza division’s new products group. “I’ll always be the consumer champion.” The most recent proof of that was February’s Stuff the Rim and Win campaign to launch DiGiorno Cheese Stuffed Crust Pizza: Instant-win game-pieces on 2.5 million boxes awarded five trips to the 2003 NBA All-Star Game. 141 Communicator handled.

Hart says the hardest part of the game was “making sure everything tied back to the one idea. With in-store, TV, and packages for lots of SKUs, we had to make sure it all sent a consistent message to consumers.”

The Winner

The irony is that Brittany Boyce actually wanted delivery pizza that night.

“I asked my mom if we could order pizza, but she wasn’t hungry. So I pulled a DiGiorno pizza out of the freezer,” says Boyce.

When Boyce called the toll-free number to enter the on-pack code, she thought the prize-winner message “meant I was only in the running,” she says. She didn’t realize her fortune until the DiGiorno Delivery Guy uniform arrived in a FedEx package. “I wondered what I ordered,” she laughs. “When I opened the box, I quit breathing and my brother kept jumping up and down.

“My mom made me put the uniform on right away for pictures, and then I wore it to work to show my friends,” says the West Virginia native. The uniform has hung in her closet ever since, true to the campaign promise that DiGiorno’s delivery guy does “nothing.”

Friends told the 20-year-old Boyce that $100,000 was reason enough to quit her summer job mentoring underprivileged kids through AmeriCorps, but “I made a commitment,” she says. “Besides, the kids helped me as much as I helped them.”

Boyce socked away the prize money and, after college, may use it to open a day care center. The Marshall University sophomore deposited her check at the drive-through. “They told me to come in for a more secure account,” she recalls. “I felt so important.” The Cruiser is “garage-kept,” and Boyce is trying to sell it. “I already have a car,” she shrugs.

Kraft really has asked nothing of Boyce since the June win, and she doesn’t mind the quietude. She lives at home with her mom and brother because the university dorms are too loud, and she likes to picnic and watch the sunset in the hills of Huntington. “It sounds boring,” she says apologetically.

Hart’s team might want to keep an eye on Boyce’s 16-year-old brother, who’s dragging his heels about getting his driver’s license. “He doesn’t want to drive, because he doesn’t want to have to get a job,” says Boyce.

Sounds like a natural DiGiorno Delivery Guy.