PizzaExpress, one of Britain’s most iconic restaurant brands, has signed with advertising, media and music specialist Truant London as its agency of record, following a competitive pitch.

Truant was appointed as lead agency after impressing PizzaExpress’ marketing team, led by new chief customer officer Shadi Halliwell (formerly O2’s Head of Brand and Harvey Nichols’ group marketing and creative director), with a strategy that gives the brand bags of attitude to broaden and re-energise the restaurant giant’s appeal. 

The partnership sees Truant set a fresh direction for PizzaExpress by developing a fun and youthful new tone that celebrates the vibrancy of all-things-pizza across the brand’s extensive pizzeria estate, alongside a multimedia campaign spanning owned, social, OOH, connected TV, digital and online. 

The debut campaign launches on 21st June 2021 with explosive art direction to hero PizzaExpress’ new menu, encouraging younger and family audiences to reappraise the brand while amplifying the restaurant’s innovation strategy.

Truant worked with renowned food photographer Howard Shooter to develop an ownable photographic style for the brand, capturing beautifully prepared PizzaExpress ingredients as they drop and make impact, energetically flying in all directions.

The communications strategy for PizzaExpress’ restaurant, retail and delivery channels integrates the brand’s new vibrant tone and art direction into every touchpoint. For example, pizza cutters now feature ‘Just roll with it’ on their handles, and napkins feature lines such as‘ 'you’re sloppy like Giuseppe'.

Shadi Halliwell, PizzaExpress CCO, said: “Truant’s integrated approach and fresh thinking makes them an ideal partner for developing a new brand world and tone-of-voice for PizzaExpress. Together, we plan to lift the brand and put it squarely in the here-and-now, to reach new audiences and re-energise existing ones.”

Chris Jefford, Truant’s CEO and co-founder, added: “The PizzaExpress story is one of passion, creativity and love for a food that is uniquely and universally exciting. The brand is so well-loved across the UK, but everyone acknowledges that there is a need to supercharge it.  We’re humbled that Shadi and her brilliant team have chosen to sign with Truant - it’s a huge responsibility to look after this brand, and a great testament to our own business that we’ve been successful in the pitch. As people come flooding back to restaurants, it’s our collective job to make sure that PizzaExpress is as relevant as it’s ever been.”