Pizza Hut starts its own online dating account

Published February 4, 2014 at 8:13 am

Of all the ways consumers have to interact with the companies they like online, a new one has just suggested itself: interested customers can look up Pizza Hut on the popular dating website OkCupid.com.

Yes, you read that right. Whoever loves Pizza Hut so much they want to marry it can now seriously explore how that possibility would play out.

It sounds strange to say the least, but the pizza slingers appear to be doing so as part of a promotional contest, encouraging interested fans to “propose” to it with ideas for unique ways to pop the question. The prize for the best entry is a “lifetime supply of pizza.”

Because OkCupid is a nominally free dating site, it makes sense that it would be looking for especially dominant and integrated means of advertising. But as that company’s digital experience director Caroline Masullo said in a recent statement (quoted by AdAge), this is a chance for “the Hut” to draw on its extensive online presence and vocal fanbase.

“Our fans are the best and they tell us all the time via our social channels that they want to lock us in for the long run,” she said. “We think it’s time to take that mutual feeling to the next level with a commitment.”

Though the regular visitors to sites like this might resent the intrusion of a corporate entity of this size, could it instead represent a significant way for companies to show fans some “love”? If so, Pizza Hut may be seen as a pioneer.