October is National Pizza Month

Let’s explore ways to celebrate National Pizza Month. We’ve put together a list of low-cost to no-cost marketing ideas for your pizzeria make the most of National Pizza Month. They include:

1. Original pricing from when the pizzeria opened if it’s a legacy pizzeria.
2. Giveaway for 1 free pizza a month.
3. Partner with another pizzeria for a charity challenge. Whoever sells the most pizza wins a “trophy” or something until the next year.
4. Kids eat free during the month of October!
5. Eating challenge. Get entrants to compete for t-shirts or other swag. Do a wall of fame.
6. GET ON TV! Do pizza for local news stations in the morning. Then do a promotion for that day.
7. Random Pizza Giveaway (store customer info and randomly give away a year of free pizza to a customer who orders during Nat’l Pizza Month)
8. Pizza History Night (sell a dinner for $X per person. During the event, tell your patrons about the history of pizza)
9. School Field Trips (encourage Elementary schools to bring kids in for field trips during the month. Let the kids touch and play with dough as you explain how pizza is made).
10. Press Night (Invite local food writers, bloggers, etc. in for a free dinner during which you hit key talking points that differentiates your pizzeria … i.e. expand on whatever it is that makes you special and unique in your city, whether that be locally sourced ingredients, gluten-free, organic, beer in your dough, etc.
11. Run a customer recipe promotion. Invite your patrons to create your next big hit! Have customers submit recipes for topping combinations, etc. Winner gets the pizza named after them on your menu or free pizza for a year or a $500 gift card, etc.
12. Tie in other unique October observances, like National Disability Employment Awareness Month or Halloween
13. Offer a National Pizza Month one-of-kind offer to your loyalty club members. Think swag, secret menu item, etc.
14. Go for a local, regional, national or world record. Guinness World Records offers several pizza-related opportunities.
15. Create a 31 Days of Pizza menu featuring a different specialty pizza each day.
16. Host a Guest Chef Takeover Night, where a local or regional chef creates a menu with pre-sale dinner event tickets at $X per person.
17. Create games for each day of October with a drawing where winner receives free item or offer. (Think small games, like guess the number of pepperonis on a pizza; guess the ingredient; answer questions related to your pizzeria; in-store scavenger hunt; photo with a specific item social contest, etc.)
18. Crown an Ultimate Pizza Fan by inviting customers to submit on social media why they should be the winner.
19. Go big and raise money the entire month to support a local cause.
20. Ask customers to send you video submissions stating why they LOVE your pizza. Push these videos out to social media platforms — free marketing!
21. Pick a slow night and screen a “pizza movie” in your party room if you have one. (Mystic Pizza with Julia Roberts, perhaps?)
22. Several high school sports are in full swing — football, soccer, cross country, volleyball … reach out to local varsity teams and invite them in for a team night.
23. Challenge a pizzeria owner in another city to a duel. Whoever sells the most cheese pies in October gets to pick a charity and the “loser” donates $500 to said charity.
24. Organize and sponsor a “Cops vs. Firefighters” charity softball game. October weather is perfect for softball games!
25. Host a Halloween party for little ones. Encourage them to “trunk or treat” for candy inside your parking lot. Give them a coupon for a free personal pizza on their next visit.
26. Let an employee take over your social media account each week of the Month of October to share your pizzeria’s story.
27. Host a pizza-making workshop to let customers stretch and top pizza.
28. Take key team members on a pizza tour of your nearest large metropolitan market and share the experience with your pizzeria’s social followers.
29. Create a video to share with your pizzeria’s social followers on who you are and why you founded the pizzeria. Go further and create another video going behind-the-scenes to show how you make the pizza.
30. Order some custom pizza swag. Get creative. Think about what your customers would wear often. Hoodies, fitted comfort t-shirts, flex-fit hats, skull caps, patches, buttons, koozies, or temporary tattoos (design real tattoos if that’s your audience).

Go to our National Pizza Month Operator Toolkit to get marketing assets — official NPM logo, art, infographics, media release and more.