The Red Roof has been the Pizza Hut flagship for nearly two generations. Soon after the PepsiCo acquisition, top management was asked to re-examine company direction. The self-analysis was startling. The flagship brand was steadily loosing profitability in spite of increased ad dollars while delivery and the few U.S. kiosks were exploding. To add to the complication, Pizza Hut had long been a franchiser, but corporate was attempting to wrest back control from the local operators. This was acutely complex with some of the larger franchisers who virtually “owned the market” in some of the larger metro areas such as Chicago and New York. They had long been able to bully even top corporate management in going along with their localized campaigns. In some cases this had caused significant problems by “spilling” on peripheral markets.

So… the challenge was to draw everyone, including International into the concept of “one world, one company” once again. Maritz, Inc. of Saint Louis enjoyed the reputation of being one of the largest incentive and sales training production companies in the world. Their concept to PH was clear… Maritz would bring in top management and the franchisers to a world meeting in Orlando Florida. There all the major players would take part in learning the company vision and also having a chance to influence that doctrine. When they departed they would all have signed off on a new direction to be achieved over the next two years.

On very short notice Calvin was able to crew up for the U.S. filming and work with the USCIB to gain the necessary carnet documents for an around-the-world shoot. The filming was complicated by the fact that not only did the crew have to work in both Europe and Asia, but they had to be able to shoot video tape, 35mm motion picture film, and 35mm stills almost simultaneously!

The final result was a multi-screen production that touted the success stories from different operators world wide… particularly those in the new specialty restaurants in Europe, the domestic delivery units and units in Japan and the U.K. and the new kiosks in Asia. This effort practically turned around a company that had lost direction. Although the film was only a part of the overall story, attendees reported that it gave them the “feeling” of being part of the company as opposed to individual franchisees. This was a major goal of the company and critical for the rest of the plans that they had.