The NFL's new sponsorship with Pizza Hut brings an AR experience that will have fans tossing digital sand bags throughout the 2018 season.
The 2018 NFL season kicks off this Thursday, and with roughly 16.5 million hungry football fans watching the games, the NFL’s new official sponsor - Pizza Hut – is prepared to deliver pizzas, wings, sides, pastas, and desserts to homes all across the U.S. to make sure fans are rooting for their favorite teams with fully bellies.
However, Pizza Hut is planning on delivering more than just meat-lovers pizzas and hot wings to your football game gatherings. “The Hut” will be delivering a cool AR version of the popular backyard/tailgating game, cornhole, that can be launched using a specially marked Pizza Hut box and corresponding Beanbag Blitz mobile app.
Technically you don’t need to order a Pizza Hut pizza to unlock Beanbag Blitz, but where's the fun in that? Everything's better when pizza is involved.
The Beanbag Blitz app, currently available in the Apple App Store (available soon on Android) gives you three options to launch the game: The first option has you launching the AR game and testing your cornhole skills by scanning your special Pizza Hut “Hut Hut Hut” box using the app. Once you do that, an AR version of the pizza box appears and unfolds into cornhole board where you would use your fingers to toss beanbags.
The second option lets you play the game without a Pizza Hut box. Unfortunately, however, it won’t be in AR. Instead it will feel more like a game app, and to make matters worse – there’s no pizza. The third option isn’t really an option, it’s just a quick way to order a pizza through the Beanbag Blitz app, which gets you both pizza, and the box to open up AR cornhole.
Gameplay is what you’d expect from a standard game of cornhole, but in case you’re not familiar, the rules are pretty simple; two players take turns throwing a collection of beanbags with the goal of getting your bag in or as close to the hole as possible.
Because Beanbag Blitz is turn-based, the game will require you to share your smart phone with your opponent. So, be prepared to deal with nasty grease streaks all over your screen along with a distinct smell of pepperoni.
Like all well-thought-out marketing campaigns, Beanbag Blitz AR is just a small component of the new partnership that Pizza Hut has as the new official sponsor of the NFL. According to the official press release, Pizza Hut has big plans to launch even more experiences, exclusive pizza deals, and partnerships with big named stars to bring the energy of the stadium to the fans at home throughout the season.
You can also enroll in Game Plan or sign into your Hut Rewards account to enter for the chance to win prizes each week, such as gift cards, a Bose SoundLink Revolve speaker, and a grand prize trip to Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta.
Pizza Hut’s new opportunity presented itself when the NFL and Papa John’s mutually ended their relationship earlier this year. It was an opportunity for Pizza Hut to embrace the spirit of NFL fandom, the spirit of competition, and sell a lot of pizza with new technology in a fun way.
Zipporah Allen, Chief Marketing Officer, Pizza Hut, U.S., said in a press release, “We tapped into technology to deliver a truly immersive game day experience to fans.” Adding “Incorporating this AR component into our lineup of new experiences is broadening out digital portfolio and engaging fans in a completely new way.”
The 2018 NFL seasons begins Thursday September 6th as the The Atlanta Falcons take on The Philadelphia Eagles.
Image Credit: MediaPost / Pizza Hut / NFL