WTF campaign goes viral

Creative director Margarita Karvouniaris said, "We had never seen a pizza this fun and exciting and were determined to create a campaign that lived up to the product."

The TV ad features ordinary South Africans from around the country reacting to their first look at a pizza. Charmed by the characters and holding their breath waiting for the first on-air utterance of the word "f..... rikkadel", the audience is entertained and intrigued until the punch-line is revealed at the end of the commercial. Copywriter, Mark Cope Grainger, art director, Vanessa Tucker and creative director, Margarita Karvouniaris created the campaign which was shot by Cindy Lee of Fresh Eye Films.

However, as with every integrated campaign, the agency didn't stop at TV. Supported by in-store creative work, the campaign also makes use of the latest social networking channels. mojo interactive, a division of morrisjones&co, created a Facebook page for Debonairs Pizza that is rapidly growing in popularity.

"Since 18 October 2010, we've had a sign-up rate (which grows exponentially), of about 43 people a day with the page being visited approximately 1661 times," said Warren Dawson of mojo interactive. The page includes the usual tabs and the 'WTF' tag. Fans can download the WTF application to upload pictures and videos that make them think 'WTF?' and win prizes.

"Debonairs Pizza is extremely happy with the creative execution of the new campaign, the agency captured the human truth perfectly. We hope that the words 'What the Frikkadel?' become part of daily vocabulary of everyone in South Africa," said marketing executive André Piehl

The campaign launched in mid October 2010 and will continue throughout the summer.