With football season bearing down on the U.S., one company is giving quick serves the chance to plaster the logo of a customer’s favorite team on their favorite game accompaniment—pizza.

Lucks Food Decorating Company, creators of the Edible Image that is popular on cakes, is taking its newer Pizza Prints product across the country as a new food branding opportunity.

Andy Sachs, national account manager with Tacoma, Washington–based Lucks, says pizza was “the next natural progression” for the Edible Image after the cake.

“When we thought about it, we thought, well, pizza is in every celebration that our cakes are at,” Sachs says. “So we got to work—we have a great R&D team back in Tacoma—and they invented Pizza Prints.”

Any image can be translated into a Pizza Print, Sachs says. The product is made of a tapioca starch-based product with food coloring, and is applied to the pizza after it is cooked and sliced.

“The formula is a bit different [than what’s on a cake] because you’re not going to want to have a distinctly sweet taste on your pizza like we do on the cakes,” Sachs says. “It’s relatively flavor neutral. It complements the flavor of the product.”

Sachs says around 1,500 independent pizzerias make Pizza Prints available to customers, though no national brands are on board yet.

Still, Sachs says he expects the availability of the product to continue to expand as pizza concepts look for new branding opportunities.

“It’s an opportunity to tie events, celebrations, or special occasions, whether it be the big game, or a birthday party, or a holiday, directly to their consumers,” he says.

“It not only brings a level of excitement and a new product to their consumers, but it also enhances that [quick serve’s] brand identity, as well as the experience that the consumers have, while increasing loyalty and driving incremental sales and, of course, profit.”

By Sam Oches

Marketing & Promotions, News, Pizza