Whether you're a fan or not, chances are you know that Pizza Hut is kind of a big deal.
What is it about Pizza Hut that makes it stand out from its competition?
Some of the answers may surprise you.
Internet sales milestones
It's rare today that someone will actually call a pizza place to order a pie for delivery.
People are more likely to go online to place their order or do it straight from a mobile
app, and while this seems like a modern luxury, Pizza Hut has been sold online since the '90s.
It was even one of the first things ever sold on the world wide web, way back in 1994.
Remember dial-up?
"With 56k connections are faster than ever!"
"everyone I know is on it"
They scored a big pizza first when they partnered with Sony Online and EverQuest 2 in 2005 to
add the "/pizza" command to the game.
It made their pizza the first real-world product that could be ordered from a virtual world.
Fast forward 11 years, and Pizza Hut UK upped the innovation ante and designed tattoos albeit
the temporary kind with QR Codes that correspond to your favorite pizza.
Hungry?
Just tap your phone to your arm, and your order's in.
How times have changed.
Pretty soon, they'll have scratch n' sniff menus, too.
Oh, wait…
"That's a meat feast - chicken bacon beef, that's a meat feast."
International… delights?
Pizza Hut has branched out all over the world and does its best to incorporate regional
cuisine into their pizza offerings.
Some of the unique pizzas aren't too crazy, like Australia's stuffed hot dog crust pizza,
or Brazil's pretty delicious-looking Cheesy Pop, a pie with a cheese-filled crust that
breaks away into bite-sized pieces.
Other pizzas can sound a little more, well, foreign.
How about trying India's Pizza Hut special, topped with baby corn, jalapenos, and olives?
Or New Zealand's bizarre chicken and cranberry pizza, complete with super-thin crust?
Canada goes one step further and combines two massive favorites: poutine and pizza,
and is that proof there's such a thing as too far?
Not if Pakistan has anything to say about it: they have a Doritos Pizza.
Popping the question
Is there a better way to tell someone you want to spend the rest of your life with them
than with the gift of pizza?
Okay, but pizza's pretty good, too.
In 2012, the chain launched a $10,000 engagement package to help hopeful pizza-lovers pop the
question.
The package came with a ruby engagement ring to match the pizza sauce on the medium pizza
that you would dive into after your significant other (hopefully) said yes.
Also included were flowers, fireworks, and a professional videographer and photographer
to capture the special moment when you declared your undying love for your beloved… at Pizza
Hut.
Odd, but everyone knows that couple.
Loading up on cheese
Pizza Hut uses a lot of cheese.
How much cheese?
More than you can probably imagine, because they actually use more than pretty much anyone
else in the world.
The company goes through 300 million pounds of cheese every year, which means that three
percent of the total cheese in production in the world is bought by Pizza Hut.
On top of that, they use 525 million pounds of tomatoes and 700 million pounds of pepperoni.
Those numbers are pretty staggering, so how about a fun bit of trivia you're sure to share
over your next pizza?
Every weekday, around 3.9 million people wander the streets of Manhattan.
Based on numbers from the CDC, that means together, all the inhabitants of Manhattan
weigh about 705 million pounds just a little more than the amount of pepperoni Pizza Hut
uses in a year.
Funky stunts
There's innovation, and then there's Pizza Hut innovation.
Over the years, they've been behind some pretty funky stunts and gimmicks that make for some
hilarious marketing.
Quick, what's the last thing you'd expect to be pizza-scented?
"Food spray?
Sure."
If you said "perfume" you'd be right, and that's proof you don't think like Pizza Hut.
The idea to launch a Pizza Hut perfume started off as a joke, but Pizza Hut Canada decided
to go ahead and make it because why not?
People like pizza and people like perfume, and so the unlikely combination was born.
The limited edition perfume launched in Canada in 2012, arriving in the United States in
time for Valentine's Day 2013.
It was super-limited, and strangely enough, many who were lucky enough to sample the scent
reported that it actually smelled like cinnamon rolls.
They've also made the dreams of every '80s kid come true when they partnered with the
pizza-loving Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2014.
Not content with run-of-the-mill publicity stunts like banners and signs, they built
a functioning, 12-foot-tall pizza thrower for that year's San Diego Comic Con.
It didn't launch pizza, but visitors could still climb aboard and fling some fake pizzas
at the bad guys just like their favorite turtles do.
Cowabunga!
Out of this world
Pizza Hut is all about firsts, and they became first pizza chain to deliver a pizza to outer
space in the very appropriate year of 2001.
The pizza was delivered to the International Space Station via a Russian rocket, and don't
worry, no space agency was footing that delivery bill.
It was Pizza Hut who actually paid the Russian space agency for the opportunity to deliver
the first pizza to space.
The publicity stunt reportedly cost the chain $1 million.
After all that, the lucky Russian cosmonaut who received the pizza probably didn't even
get to enjoy it that much, as prolonged periods of time in space deaden your taste buds.
Pizza Hut added some extra salt and spices to the pizza to give it a bit more kick, and
swapped the pepperoni for salami to extend the shelf life.
That's serious ambition.