Open House at PizzaExpress

  • Sally Skinner
The good old 'bring your own bottle' concept is experiencing a revival in Australian dining, and catching on across London and Paris. PizzaExpress decided to trial it as a Sunday night offering, encouraging customers to hold off the Monday blues with a relaxing meal out with friends.
I came up with 'Open House' as a name for this initiative, helping to create a 'special event' ambience that feels warm and inviting.
I crafted messaging to raise awareness through various channels, from personalised emails to a printed invitation that arrives with regular customers' bills.
We worked with PizzaExpress's chefs and sommeliers to help customers match the perfect pizza to their choice of wine. This enabled us to spread the message across the high street, including pizza-tasting stations in local off licenses.
For the restaurant tables we created special Open House placemats, with spaces labelled 'my favourite pizza' and 'my favourite wine' and inviting customers to tag their Instagrams #pizzaexpress #openhouse for the chance to win flights to Rome.