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How Pita Pit is tying March Madness into its brand and engaging customers

The NCAA men's basketball championship tournament starts this week. It provides the perfect backdrop for an early spring promotion, something that Pita Pit, with its MVPita Bracket Challenge, is taking full advantage of.

March 18, 2015 by Josh Fischer — Editor, NetWorld

Beware the Ides of March, the Bard wrote. It’s a time when madness is lauded. March Madness, that is.

The NCAA men's basketball championship tournament starts this week. It provides the perfect backdrop for an early spring promotion, something that Pita Pit, with its MVPita Bracket Challenge, is taking full advantage of.

"This is a time of year when everyone has bracket fever, so why not get our pitas in on the fun?" Corey Bowman, president of Pita Pit USA, said in a release. "Our fans are passionate about their pitas, so now we have a way to determine truly which pita is the absolute best."

The idea to use the NCAA tournament model is something that germinated from Pita Pit’s active and youthful business model, one that began on college campuses.

"With Pita Pit we’re all about variety and personalization," Kevin Sanders, vice president of brand marketing, said.  "And the ability for people to make their own perfect pita exactly the way they want. The ‘March Madness Bracketology’ idea, putting our pitas against each other head to head, was a pretty obvious tie to our brand."

Pita Pit’s Facebook fans determine who will advance, and ultimately who will be crowned the MVPita Bracket Challenge champion. The winner will be announced on April 6th. Fans who vote on Facebook will be entered for a chance to win the grand prize of free Pita Pit for a year. During the competition, fans who participate will also be entered for the opportunity to win Pita Pit gift cards.

"One of the things over the years that Pita Pit has been known for is having a strong personality," Jordy Patano, digital marketing manager, said. "Especially early on because we were primarily in college markets. One of the things we were working on with our marketing team, we started talking about ‘if these pitas were a school’ what would they be? That led to what we are doing with this campaign."

The challengers for the title of MVPita Bracket Challenge champion include favorites such as Chicken Souviaki, Turkey, BLT, and Tuna. Other contenders will be the "Big Man on Campus" Chicken Crave, "True Gentleman" Dagwood, and "Beach Bum" Aloha.

Patano and Sanders have their predictions.

"My final four would be, based on the votes right now, and what we saw in the play-in round, is the Chicken Souvlaki and Buffalo Chicken are going to go up against each other on one side of the bracket, and it’s probably going to be the Gyro and the Chicken Caesar," Patano said.

Sanders has similar pics, but has an underdog in the final four.

"I would definitely say the Chicken Caesar, Buffalo (Chicken), and (Chicken) Souvlaki are my favorites," said Sanders. "But, I’m going to go a little wild card here and say the Falafel makes it (to the final four). That’s my Cinderella team."

About Josh Fischer

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Josh Fischer has worked in retail, marketing and communications for over 15 years. His creative writing has appeared in the Miracle Monocle and Juked.

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