Social media is often referred to as a currency and now, maybe, it really is – thanks to an intriguing promotion launched by Pizza Hut in the Middle East.
Dubbed ‘Pay With Your Trend”, the promotion allows consumers to buy pizza with user-generated TikTok content. Participants in the promotion upload videos to TikTok with the hashtag #YourTermsYourConditions. They then receive a code that allows them to redeem a free ‘Pizza Hut My Box’ through the brand’s app.
Explaining the promotion’s rationale, Ahmed Sabri (pictured), marketing lead at Pizza Hut Middle East & Pakistan, told regional media outlets: “Being one of the first pizza brands in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), I really think it’s essential that we stay connected to our youth by engaging with them through their passions and platforms.”
It’s common practice for influencers with large audiences to partner brands. But the promotion hints at a business model where brands can effectively trade products and services for an individual’s social audience. Clearly there are unanswered questions relating to regulation – and how an influencer’s audience might react to a stream of unsolicited commercial messages. But the rapid shift towards genAI could open the door for a commercial scale up of the Pizza Hit initiative – effectively democratising the content creation business model and creating a new form of digital currency.
