Brilliant marketing: How Boston Pizza change, chain, place

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Brilliant marketing: How Boston Pizza became Vancouver Pizza
The Boston Pizza website has been rebranded as 'Vancouver Pizza.'


In a show of home-town support and solidarity, Boston Pizza has become "Vancouver Pizza" -- for the duration of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, anyway. The change was made on the restaurant chain's website almost immediately after the Boston Bruins won their series Friday night, and more substantial changes will take place early next week.


But the planning for this mastermind marketing move actually took place last year when it looked like there was a chance Boston and the Vancouver Canucks might play each other at some point.


"The stars didn't align at that time so we just kept it in the can," Brad Bissonnette, Boston Pizza's director of regional marketing said in an interview Saturday. "Now, the city is on overdrive and it's really special to be a part of that."


As soon as Boston won its series, the restaurant "pulled the trigger," ordering up rebranding materials for all of its 62 B.C. locations.


The fact that it took seven games for Boston to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning was definitely nerve-wracking for everyone at the chain. "I was on pins and needles," Bissonnette admits. "But it was magical when [the Boston win] happened. And it was only natural for us to show our support."

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Starting Monday, all restaurants will receive Vancouver Pizza banners to hang over their signage. They will also get Vancouver Pizza stickers to cover up the unsightly Boston Pizza logos on takeout containers. And staff will be instructed to answer the phones "Hello, Vancouver Pizza."


The rebranding will also take place at Rogers Arena, where the rink boards, LED displays and signage at all kiosks will be amended to say Vancouver Pizza. "Every consumer touchpoint will be rebranded," Bissonnette says.


Probably the best part of this is that all of these changes will only cost Boston Pizza ... er, Vancouver Pizza ... about $20,000. "The power is in the message and the timing," Bissonnette says.


All restaurants will also feature special Canucks menus; customers who order from them will get to enter to win prizes that include the chance to watch a Canucks playoff game in a private suite.


This is the second time the company has changed its logo to show support for a home team; when Boston played Montreal earlier this year, all BP locations in Montreal become Montreal Pizza.


Boston Pizza started 45 years ago in Edmonton; the restaurant chain now has its head office in Richmond.


In a show of local support, popular restaurant chain Boston Pizza temporarily renames its franchises Vancouver Pizza.

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