Papa John’s International, Inc.’s restaurants suffered a 3.4% decrease in sales in May, despite the company’s efforts to roll out nationwide advertising and marketing campaigns.
Company-owned restaurants fared better with a 0.8% decrease in sales compared to a 4.2% decrease at franchise locations. The company believes that these results are due to differing levels of operational and promotional execution. The four-week period ended May 23.
“We are working with our franchisees to help them focus on improving operational and promotional execution at their restaurants,” COO Bill Van Epps said.
Just last week the No. 4 pizza chain debuted a new addition to its Pizza and Entertainment campaign—Coca-Cola Music Edition carrier features four free digital music track downloads from Musicmatch. Papa John’s customers purchasing four 20-oz. Coca-Cola beverages receive their drinks in the new carrier along with a sticker featuring four free tracks. The first installment of the Pizza and Entertainment campaign debuted May 3 with a promotion offering customers one of three DVDs with the purchase of a large pizza.
This May, Papa John’s awarded creative duties on its $45 million ad account to Ft. Lauderdale, FL-based Zimmerman Partners without a review. The pizza chain broke its ties with Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Austin Kelly, based in Atlanta, after just six months.
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