Last month Pizza Patrón ran “Pizza Por Favor,” a campaign offering a free large pepperoni pizza to every customer that ordered in Spanish. The campaign stirred a firestorm of media attention and public reaction, resulting in lines of hundreds wrapped around each of the company’s locations. Today, the chain released statistics of the campaign’s results.

Andrew Gamm, Pizza Patrón’s brand director, reports that close to 80,000 pizzas were given away. This number was a combination of almost 50,000 actual pizzas given away during the event’s designated 3-hour period, plus nearly 30,000 coupons for free pizzas that were redeemed in the days following the event. The coupons were given out in instances of depleted supplies, as well as to people still in line after the promotional hours had concluded.

“Our plan was created to address a maximum of 30,000 pizzas, based on the capacity of our stores for any given three hour period,” Gamm says. “However, we underestimated the crowds and many franchisees kept giving out free pizzas after the event hours. As supplies depleted, coupons were given to those still in line to come back another day and redeem for a free pizza.”

The company’s bigger surprise was in the resulting sales records. Gamm says that more than 25 percent of the chain’s stores broke all-time sales records the week before and the week of the promotional event.

“The campaign achieved its goal of solidifying our unique position in the marketplace and strengthening our relationship with the Hispanic community,” Gamm says. “We are very proud of our Latino brand focus and we remain unapologetic of our commitment to this community.”