Advertising Age: Papa John’s Aims at Rivals With Pan Pizza, Its Biggest New Product in Years

The third-largest pizza chain in the U.S. is trying out pan pizza again. According to a recent Advertising Age article, Papa John’s is rolling out a pan pizza nationally after two years of developing the product.

The company tried to sell a square-shaped pan pizza more than a decade ago that did not perform well at all, but the brand is hoping the new version that is round and comes in a black box, will be the brand’s biggest new product in 10 years.

"Pan does represent a fairly significant percentage of the overall pizza industry and so we just thought that was a great opportunity," Mr. Muldoon said.

The September 2005 launch of pan pizza included a campaign featuring Dan Marino and was--at that time--the largest new product roll-out the company had since the launch of its thin crust pizza in 1996. 10 years later, the company will be promoting the new pan pizza with a commercial that features a different football star, Peyton Manning.

Papa John’s has been teasing the new pizza on social media with an image of a black box saying “Something Better is coming.” Soon enough, we will see if customers agree with the statement.