Pizza Hut signs Sky sponsor deal

Pizza Hut has signed a £1m deal to sponsor Sky Sports’ coverage of the Nationwide Football League and Worthington Cup.

The pizza chain will sponsor more than 80 live games, as well as the twice-weekly Football League Review highlights programme during the forthcoming 2000-2001 season, on Sky Sports 1, 2 and 3 on satellite and digital channels.

Pizza Hut replaces motor oil brand Duckhams which was the previous sponsor of Nationwide League programmes on Sky Sports.

The Pizza Hut sponsorship includes a series of humorous promotional idents to open and close programmes and break bumpers, featuring family and friends of football fans talking about their loved ones’ obsession with the game.

The deal was negotiated through Drum PHD, the sponsorship arm of New PHD. Abbott Mead Vickers. BBDO is handling the creative work. The sponsorship will be backed with promotions in Pizza Hut restaurants and league grounds.

Pizza Hut marketing manager Paul Hilburn says: “Football and pizza typically go together and this is an opportunity for us to target our core market.”

BSkyB recently lost live coverage of the Nationwide League (Divisions One, Two and Three) to ONdigital in a £315m deal with the Football League, which starts at the beginning of the 2001-2002 season.