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SO BRAD PITT ATE A SLICE ...
Slate Magazine
Feb 20 2015
How the pizza place Ellen ordered from at last year's Oscars has
parlayed its three minutes of fame.
By Jason Feifer
Ellen DeGeneres strode onto the stage first. "Pizza's here!" she said.
Behind her followed a stunned delivery guy named Edgar, holding three
boxes of the finest pie Big Mama's & Papa's Pizzeria has on offer.
"Hello," Edgar said to Hollywood's assembled royalty. And then
for three minutes--the most memorable of last year's Oscars, made
extraordinary by its ordinariness--the two distributed slices to the
hungry likes of Meryl Streep and Harrison Ford. The pizza shop swears
it had no idea this was going to happen; Edgar says he had been told he
was delivering pizza to the crew, and then Ellen led him out past the
curtains. Given what ABC charges for a 30-second ad during the Oscars,
TMZ calculated that Big Mama's & Papa's 180 seconds of sunshine was
worth $10.8 million.
It seemed like a crazy blip for an otherwise obscure pizzeria,
good for maybe a few weeks of increased sales. But one year later,
we can see the profound effect that $10.8 million in unexpected free
advertising has had. Big Mama's ambitions have been amplified, and
the chain is aiming to go global.
Big Mama's has a romantic origin story: In 1992, as teenagers not yet
fluent in English, Armenian immigrant brothers Aro and Allen Agakhanyan
opened a 500-square-foot pizza shop that they'd work at for hours after
high school let out. They've since grown the company to 20 locations
in and around L.A., some owned by them and others franchised. (Edgar,
who delivered to the Oscars, is a franchisee.) And they've gained
local notoriety for living up to the "Big" in their name: They serve
a 54-inch, 200-slice "Giant Sicilian": the Guinness World Records
calls it the largest deliverable pizza in the world. In January,
Miley Cyrus posted a photo of herself in front of one on Facebook.
Advertisement
One of the brothers' locations is near DeGeneres' studio in Burbank,
and they say her staff orders from it frequently. But during the
biggest delivery in the company's history, only one brother, Aro, was
watching. Allen was working late at the office when someone called,
frantically telling him what was going on. He immediately called his
brother. "We had been waiting for a great opportunity to come, and
this was it," Allen says. "And that's when we decided, right away,
we've got to get a hold of Lou and Ray."
Even the greatest accomplishment can start to look like a crutch,
something you show off for lack of any other accolade.
Lou and Ray are Lou Franson, former president of Hooters and managing
director of Arby's International, and Ray Perry, former COO of
Carl's Jr. and Hardee's. They had teamed up as restaurant consultants
and had met with the Agakhanyan brothers a few years prior to talk
about expansion. Nothing came of the meeting back then, but suddenly
everything was different. "The day after the Oscars, I get a call,
and all I hear is, 'We need help!' " Franson says. New investors
and potential franchisees were calling the brothers. Customers were
ordering pizza as if the stars were in the back tossing dough. The
restaurant veterans signed on immediately.
Franson says they knew the brand couldn't be built on one TV moment, no
matter how many A-listers had been involved. "From a legal standpoint,
we had to be very careful," he says. They don't actually own the
rights to any of the Oscars images, and it's not as if Brad Pitt
can be called an official sponsor, as much as he did seem to enjoy
his slice. There's also a risk of overplaying the moment, like an
Olympian who wears his medal when he goes grocery shopping. Even the
greatest accomplishment can start to look like a crutch, something
you show off for lack of any other accolade.
But Franson and Perry are plotting a way around all this. They want
to use the brief blessing from the Oscars to present Big Mama's &
Papa's in a new light: as the embodiment of L.A. coolness. DeGeneres'
Oscar gag may have worked because the pizza joint seemed like a
local-yokel place--the kind that, frankly, Brad Pitt wouldn't be
frequenting. But the company's brochure for prospective franchisees
plays it differently: "Big Mama's & Papa's Pizzeria is a hot concept
that's served hot out of the oven, but it's definitely 'Southern
California Cool'--as 43 million viewers saw when Oscars host Ellen
DeGeneres hand delivered Big Mama's & Papa's pizza slices to Hollywood
A-list stars."
That's the vision new franchisees will be buying into. But to make
it stick, Franson and Perry realize that they need to amp up the
company's cool factor.
Step one: Big Mama's needs a cool car. The company has partnered
with Mercedes-Benz to create a Smart car for deliveries. It's an
eye-catching, if goofy, little thing: The car is vinyl-wrapped in
the company colors--red and yellow--and has a giant image of a pizza
on the door. On top is a custom-made insulated box, wider than the
car itself, which is built to hold that 200-slice monster. All new
franchisees are required to buy a pair of the cars.
Step two: Big Mama's needs a cool look. That's still in development,
Franson says, though he says the redesign will "capture a SoCal
lifestyle." (So, a traffic jam motif?) Most of the existing locations
will be retrofitted with the new look, and all new ones will be built
in its image. The chain's tiny Hollywood location, which I popped into
this week, could certainly use a lifestyle upgrade. Its mostly spare
walls are painted green and orange. The only sign of its proximity
to cool is a dinky Oscar trophy replica, perched on a shelf behind
the register, above a sign that says, "We reserve the right to refuse
service to anyone."
Advertisement
And, crucially, step three: The Agakhanyan brothers need to export
the cool to points beyond L.A. The company is focused on signing
new franchisees in California, Arizona, and Nevada, but they've also
found a partner in Dubai. BinHendi Enterprises, a conglomerate that
has launched everything from luxury hotels to fine dining across the
Gulf and Middle East, has committed to opening two Big Mama's in the
region this year, with more expected to follow. The company didn't
respond to a request for comment, but it's likely that they expect
L.A. coolness to play well in internationally minded Gulf cities. It's
worked for other retailers: New York's Magnolia Bakery, made famous on
Sex and the City, is now also in Beirut, Doha, Dubai, and Kuwait City.
Top Comment
Many entrepreneurs never acknowledge the role "just plain dumb luck"
plays in their success. The skill is how you handle the luck when it
happens. More...
-John Snow
18 CommentsJoin In
In pitching regional attitude, Big Mama's is making a different play
than many of its competitors. "Many successful regional chains are
capitalizing on the fast casual dining trend," says IBISWorld analyst
Andrew Alvarez, who watches the pizza industry. He's talking about the
Chipotle-style, customize-everything movement that's been killing the
likes of McDonald's. Customization can play well in the $38.7 billion
pizza industry, which is expected to grow an estimated 2 percent
annually for the next five years. PizzaRev, also from Los Angeles, has
19 locations and another 29 coming. Pie Five Pizza, based in Texas,
has 26 franchises, with 40 more planned for this year and another
200 in the pipeline. Both are hot on customization that goes beyond
the usual selection of toppings: Customers can also pick the type of
dough, sauce, and cheese. PizzaRev's slogan is "Craft Your Own."
Big Mama's & Papa's has plenty of options, too. You want gluten-free
pizza? Whole wheat? Pizza in the shape of a gondola, filled with
the toppings of your choice along with two sunny-side eggs? They've
got it. But now the real test of its coolness will begin: Another
Oscars will have come and gone, this time, presumably, without any
high-profile on-air catering, and Big Mama's will be left to create its
own momentum. The Agakhanyan brothers aren't sweating it. They always
envisioned making a push like this, seeing how far their ambitions
could take them. "The brand was going to expand regardless," Allen
says. "What the Oscars did, it sped things up. It's just a matter of
timing." And in pizza delivery, timing is everything.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/02/ellen_s_oscars_pizza_how_big_mama_s_papa_s_pizzeri a_has_parlayed_its_three.html
From: A. Papazian
Slate Magazine
Feb 20 2015
How the pizza place Ellen ordered from at last year's Oscars has
parlayed its three minutes of fame.
By Jason Feifer
Ellen DeGeneres strode onto the stage first. "Pizza's here!" she said.
Behind her followed a stunned delivery guy named Edgar, holding three
boxes of the finest pie Big Mama's & Papa's Pizzeria has on offer.
"Hello," Edgar said to Hollywood's assembled royalty. And then
for three minutes--the most memorable of last year's Oscars, made
extraordinary by its ordinariness--the two distributed slices to the
hungry likes of Meryl Streep and Harrison Ford. The pizza shop swears
it had no idea this was going to happen; Edgar says he had been told he
was delivering pizza to the crew, and then Ellen led him out past the
curtains. Given what ABC charges for a 30-second ad during the Oscars,
TMZ calculated that Big Mama's & Papa's 180 seconds of sunshine was
worth $10.8 million.
It seemed like a crazy blip for an otherwise obscure pizzeria,
good for maybe a few weeks of increased sales. But one year later,
we can see the profound effect that $10.8 million in unexpected free
advertising has had. Big Mama's ambitions have been amplified, and
the chain is aiming to go global.
Big Mama's has a romantic origin story: In 1992, as teenagers not yet
fluent in English, Armenian immigrant brothers Aro and Allen Agakhanyan
opened a 500-square-foot pizza shop that they'd work at for hours after
high school let out. They've since grown the company to 20 locations
in and around L.A., some owned by them and others franchised. (Edgar,
who delivered to the Oscars, is a franchisee.) And they've gained
local notoriety for living up to the "Big" in their name: They serve
a 54-inch, 200-slice "Giant Sicilian": the Guinness World Records
calls it the largest deliverable pizza in the world. In January,
Miley Cyrus posted a photo of herself in front of one on Facebook.
Advertisement
One of the brothers' locations is near DeGeneres' studio in Burbank,
and they say her staff orders from it frequently. But during the
biggest delivery in the company's history, only one brother, Aro, was
watching. Allen was working late at the office when someone called,
frantically telling him what was going on. He immediately called his
brother. "We had been waiting for a great opportunity to come, and
this was it," Allen says. "And that's when we decided, right away,
we've got to get a hold of Lou and Ray."
Even the greatest accomplishment can start to look like a crutch,
something you show off for lack of any other accolade.
Lou and Ray are Lou Franson, former president of Hooters and managing
director of Arby's International, and Ray Perry, former COO of
Carl's Jr. and Hardee's. They had teamed up as restaurant consultants
and had met with the Agakhanyan brothers a few years prior to talk
about expansion. Nothing came of the meeting back then, but suddenly
everything was different. "The day after the Oscars, I get a call,
and all I hear is, 'We need help!' " Franson says. New investors
and potential franchisees were calling the brothers. Customers were
ordering pizza as if the stars were in the back tossing dough. The
restaurant veterans signed on immediately.
Franson says they knew the brand couldn't be built on one TV moment, no
matter how many A-listers had been involved. "From a legal standpoint,
we had to be very careful," he says. They don't actually own the
rights to any of the Oscars images, and it's not as if Brad Pitt
can be called an official sponsor, as much as he did seem to enjoy
his slice. There's also a risk of overplaying the moment, like an
Olympian who wears his medal when he goes grocery shopping. Even the
greatest accomplishment can start to look like a crutch, something
you show off for lack of any other accolade.
But Franson and Perry are plotting a way around all this. They want
to use the brief blessing from the Oscars to present Big Mama's &
Papa's in a new light: as the embodiment of L.A. coolness. DeGeneres'
Oscar gag may have worked because the pizza joint seemed like a
local-yokel place--the kind that, frankly, Brad Pitt wouldn't be
frequenting. But the company's brochure for prospective franchisees
plays it differently: "Big Mama's & Papa's Pizzeria is a hot concept
that's served hot out of the oven, but it's definitely 'Southern
California Cool'--as 43 million viewers saw when Oscars host Ellen
DeGeneres hand delivered Big Mama's & Papa's pizza slices to Hollywood
A-list stars."
That's the vision new franchisees will be buying into. But to make
it stick, Franson and Perry realize that they need to amp up the
company's cool factor.
Step one: Big Mama's needs a cool car. The company has partnered
with Mercedes-Benz to create a Smart car for deliveries. It's an
eye-catching, if goofy, little thing: The car is vinyl-wrapped in
the company colors--red and yellow--and has a giant image of a pizza
on the door. On top is a custom-made insulated box, wider than the
car itself, which is built to hold that 200-slice monster. All new
franchisees are required to buy a pair of the cars.
Step two: Big Mama's needs a cool look. That's still in development,
Franson says, though he says the redesign will "capture a SoCal
lifestyle." (So, a traffic jam motif?) Most of the existing locations
will be retrofitted with the new look, and all new ones will be built
in its image. The chain's tiny Hollywood location, which I popped into
this week, could certainly use a lifestyle upgrade. Its mostly spare
walls are painted green and orange. The only sign of its proximity
to cool is a dinky Oscar trophy replica, perched on a shelf behind
the register, above a sign that says, "We reserve the right to refuse
service to anyone."
Advertisement
And, crucially, step three: The Agakhanyan brothers need to export
the cool to points beyond L.A. The company is focused on signing
new franchisees in California, Arizona, and Nevada, but they've also
found a partner in Dubai. BinHendi Enterprises, a conglomerate that
has launched everything from luxury hotels to fine dining across the
Gulf and Middle East, has committed to opening two Big Mama's in the
region this year, with more expected to follow. The company didn't
respond to a request for comment, but it's likely that they expect
L.A. coolness to play well in internationally minded Gulf cities. It's
worked for other retailers: New York's Magnolia Bakery, made famous on
Sex and the City, is now also in Beirut, Doha, Dubai, and Kuwait City.
Top Comment
Many entrepreneurs never acknowledge the role "just plain dumb luck"
plays in their success. The skill is how you handle the luck when it
happens. More...
-John Snow
18 CommentsJoin In
In pitching regional attitude, Big Mama's is making a different play
than many of its competitors. "Many successful regional chains are
capitalizing on the fast casual dining trend," says IBISWorld analyst
Andrew Alvarez, who watches the pizza industry. He's talking about the
Chipotle-style, customize-everything movement that's been killing the
likes of McDonald's. Customization can play well in the $38.7 billion
pizza industry, which is expected to grow an estimated 2 percent
annually for the next five years. PizzaRev, also from Los Angeles, has
19 locations and another 29 coming. Pie Five Pizza, based in Texas,
has 26 franchises, with 40 more planned for this year and another
200 in the pipeline. Both are hot on customization that goes beyond
the usual selection of toppings: Customers can also pick the type of
dough, sauce, and cheese. PizzaRev's slogan is "Craft Your Own."
Big Mama's & Papa's has plenty of options, too. You want gluten-free
pizza? Whole wheat? Pizza in the shape of a gondola, filled with
the toppings of your choice along with two sunny-side eggs? They've
got it. But now the real test of its coolness will begin: Another
Oscars will have come and gone, this time, presumably, without any
high-profile on-air catering, and Big Mama's will be left to create its
own momentum. The Agakhanyan brothers aren't sweating it. They always
envisioned making a push like this, seeing how far their ambitions
could take them. "The brand was going to expand regardless," Allen
says. "What the Oscars did, it sped things up. It's just a matter of
timing." And in pizza delivery, timing is everything.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/02/ellen_s_oscars_pizza_how_big_mama_s_papa_s_pizzeri a_has_parlayed_its_three.html
From: A. Papazian