About the campaign

PizzaExpress, like many hospitality businesses, faced a tough couple of years during the pandemic. It also wanted to create an employer brand that aligned more with its consumer brand. For research, agency ThirtyThree spoke to a group of senior leaders and teams across a range of front-of-house and back-of-house roles.

It came up with a ‘Restaurant Value Proposition’ with four key messages: Be the energy (personality); Grab the opportunities (development); Belong in our family (culture); and Grow with us (growth). An employer brand of ‘Express Yourself’ was created to show that PizzaExpress is somewhere that everyone is welcome, no matter their age, background or culinary persuasion. Headlines focused away from pizza and on the great experience teams help to create.

Social messages featured real PizzaExpress teams showcasing how they are empowered to express themselves at work, and the company used TikTok to pose questions about perks (and pizza) to the teams, who became stars in their own right. The campaigns were a hit with viewers and attracted high conversion rates.