Pizza Hut debuts aggressive ad campaign for wings

Pizza Hut launched national ads for its WingStreet brand on sports and prime-time TV this past Saturday, according to industry insider blog, Targana.com. Spokesman Chris Fuller called it the company's largest ad campaign for the year.

The strategy reflects a impending ramping-up of wings in the chain's 6,2000 locations, half of which currently carry wings. Chief marketing officer Brian Niccol said that pentration will climb to 85 percent in the "near term."

Pizza Hut president Scott Bergen said theirs is one of the largest wing restaurants in the country. Since Pizza Hut launched WingStreet in 2003, it has sold more than 1 billion wings.

The campaign has a local twist: The Buffalo News online reports that Drew Cerza, founder of the chicken wing festival in Buffalo, helped promote WingStreet Wings in the commercials that aired during college and professional football telecasts last weekend. (Pizza Hut's "Official Wing of Football" ads promote a Buffalo-style sauce rather than the chain's baked wings.)

Cerza began a national media tour on behalf of Pizza Hut last week in Los Angeles, hitting hot shows on "E" Network and TBS, among others.