Your Resume on a Pizza Box: Is Pizza Hut Really Helping Job Seekers Stand Out?

How do you stand out in a big stack of resumes? In New York City, last week, you could do that by printing your resume on a pizza box and having it delivered to an employer of your choice. A fun publicity stunt by Pizza Hut? Or was there more behind it?

Peter Boerman on October 10, 2024 Average reading time: 3 min
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Your Resume on a Pizza Box: Is Pizza Hut Really Helping Job Seekers Stand Out?

Does it say something about a changing job market? Or is it mainly a well-timed publicity stunt? Pizza Hut certainly makes an eye-catching move to print job seekers’ resumes on pizza boxes. And while the wordplay ‘ResZAmes’ might seem a bit forced, the ‘John Dough’ resume certainly makes up for it.

‘Three-quarters of resumes sent are never read…’

‘Three-quarters of resumes sent are never read,’ explains the pizza chain for the campaign it organized last week in New York City. ‘But an office pizza is hard to ignore.’ With the campaign, the organizers are capitalizing on the so-called ‘September Surge,’ the annual period after the summer vacation when there is an increase in job openings and recruitment. To stand out among the piles of digital resumes, Pizza Hut offers job seekers the chance to deliver their resumes in an unmistakable way to potential employers.

Leaving a lasting impression

‘We know that finding a job can be daunting, especially during this crucial hiring season, so we wanted to give our job-seeking customers a hand and help them cut through the clutter,’ said Chief Marketing Officer Melissa Friebe. ‘By combining Pizza Hut’s iconic pizza boxes with a hot, cheesy medium cheese pizza with job seekers’ resumes, we hope to make resumes as in-demand as office pizzas and help the applicant leave a lasting impression. Who could ignore a resume delivered as a delicious pizza?’

‘Who could ignore a resume delivered as a delicious pizza?’

Last week, customers could submit a desired future employer via the special website and create their resume. If the potential employer’s office was within a Pizza Hut delivery zone, they were eligible for a custom Pizza Hut ResZAme box. The service was free, but it was a contest: not every resume ended up on a box, and only 25 lucky individuals were selected. Pizza Hut also added that they couldn’t guarantee the ‘spicy resume’ would work, but they said, ‘In the past, pizza has proven to attract attention.’

PIZZA HUT AIMS TO SUPPORT YOUR JOB SEARCH WITH THE LAUNCH OF ‘ResZAmes’: A PIZZA BOX THAT DOUBLES AS A RESUME

New customers

And it appears to be working. Earlier this year, 26-year-old Matthew Parkhurst, co-founder and CEO of the New York-based tech startup Antimetal shared how a $15,000 investment in pizza helped him generate more than $1 million in revenue for his company. Parkhurst delivered over 1,000 boxes to startups and venture capital firms in San Francisco and New York, targeting potential customers and tech influencers with large social media followings. The stunt earned Antimetal 75 new customers – and plenty of positive press.

The results of the Pizza Hut ResZAmes campaign are not yet known. The pizzas were only delivered to employers of the respondents’ choice this week, so it’s too early to say whether it has increased their chances of landing a job with the unique resume, which, in any case, cannot be read by any ATS.

For Pizza Hut, all the attention is coming at just the right time.

For Pizza Hut, all the attention is certainly timely. The pizza chain has been struggling with issues for a while. In July, a franchisee with more than 140 locations in the Midwest and Southern U.S. filed for bankruptcy after closing 15 stores. More job seekers, then, who could have also used the attention from their pizza box…

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Peter Boerman

Peter Boerman

Blogger at ToTalent

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