Pizza Hut releases a perfume – and two more bizarre marketing stunts

Pizza Hut Australia has left many people puzzled after launching its own perfume, dubbed Eau de Pizza Hut, as part of a marketing stunt designed to draw people to its Facebook page.

The perfume – which supposedly smells like cheese, tomato and freshly baked dough – is the focal point of Pizza Hut’s Scent of Love competition.

Fans were asked to write a love letter containing the word “smell” to win a bottle of the perfume, which, according to Pizza Hut Australia’s marketing head Fatima Syed, will allow them to enjoy “the fresh smell of Pizza Hut pizza whenever they want”.

The competition has now closed, with many people left wondering how perfume ties in with a pizza chain. But Pizza Hut isn’t the first brand to pull a bizarre marketing stunt.

Here are two more equally strange marketing campaigns:

Samsung’s “sheep art” video

In 2009, Samsung recruited a Welsh sheep herding expert to create “sheep formations”, all of which was captured on video.

In the video, Samsung LED lights are attached to the sheep, which are then herded into interesting shapes, including a replica of the Mona Lisa.

The video ends with the words: “With thanks to Samsung Smart LED technology. Look at their LED TVs”.

While some people have praised the video, others have labelled it a “fake”, suggesting they simply didn’t understand the angle Samsung was coming from.

The 5 Seeds “hot bearded twins”

Another more recent example of quirky marketing is this year’s Valentine’s Day campaign for Tooheys cider brand 5 Seeds.

With the tagline, “Not As Sweet As You Think”, the campaign centres around bearded female twins looking for love.

The campaign kicked off with a newspaper advertisement, swiftly directing readers to a website called beardedtwinlove.com.au, which shows a video of the twins.

The viewer has the option to click on another video to follow the story to a different conclusion.

While the notion of bearded twins has very little – if any –connection to a cider brand, the creators of the campaign have been commended for using both print and digital platforms to tell a “compelling story”.