A food so loved they gave us a whole month.

Uncertainty has ruled the restaurant industry since March 2020. But now it’s time to put our energies into celebrating America’s favorite food, pizza! October is National Pizza Month and one of the industry’s biggest sales months. Let’s collectively have the biggest pizza month ever. 

Fun Pizza Facts

We think we could all use a little fun after the past few years. Let’s look at some fun pizza facts that you can tie into your National Pizza Month 2021 promotions and activities.  

• The word pizza originated in Gaeta, Italy in 997 AD according to food historian Giuseppe Nocca in La Repubblica.
• Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba in Naples, Italy is widely believed to be the world’s first pizzeria, opened in 1830. 
• Americans eat three billion pizzas per year. 
• The average American consumes 11 pounds of mozzarella a year, more than any other cheese. It is attributed to the demand for pizza.
• Pepperoni remains the most popular pizza toppings at a rate of over 250 million pounds consumed on pizza each year in the U.S.
• The top five most popular pizza toppings in the U.S. are: pepperoni, mushroom, olives, sausage and green pepper.
• There are approximately 92,000 pizzerias operating in the U.S., 
• The biggest pizza sales days are Super Bowl Sunday, Halloween, the day before Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

For the Record

Moontower Pizza Bar Owners Paul and Amber Rouse accept designation as largest pizza commercially available in Guinness World Records.

Going for a world record can draw a crowd and get people excited about a brand. Let’s look at just a few of the Guinness World Records in the pizza category. There are several other pizza-related records to explore at guinnessworldrecords.com.

• The Longest Pizza in the World measures 6,3333 feet and 3.60 inches. Roughly 17,700 pounds of dough, 5,000 pounds of tomato sauce and 3,900 pounds of mozzarella cheese were used to make the pizza that took 54 hours by a team of over 100 people. The Guinness World Record was set by Pizzaovens.com, Venice Bakery, Orlando Foods, At-Pac, Sysco, TFX Non Stick, Capstone Scaffold Services, Scaffold Works, SoCal Gas, Tony Gemignani, Giulio Adriani, John Arena and Italforni in Fontana, California, USA, in 2017.
• The Largest Pizza Commercially Available measures 8 feet by 2 feet and 8 inches from Moontower Pizza Bar in Burleson, Texas. When the record was set in 2018, the pizza retailed for $299.95 plus tax.
• The Largest Pizza Delivery was 30,000 pizzas delivered to United States Armed Forces, in Kandahar Airfield, Bagram Airbase and Camp Bastion, in Afghanistan, on July 4, 2012. The deliver was organized by Pizzas 4 Patriots.
• The Highest Pizza Toss is 21 feet and 5 inches set by Joe Carlucci in 2006.
• The Largest Pizza Base Spun in One Minute at 28.35 inches is also held by Joe Carlucci set in 2017.
• The Largest Pizza Base Spun in Three Minutes is 33.2 inches wide and was set by Tony Gemignani in 2006.
• The Most Pizza Boxes Folded in One Minute is 18 and set by Randy DeGregorio in 2020. 
• The Largest Collection of Pizza Boxes was set in 2013 with 595 different boxes by Scott Wiener. 

Getting down to business with National Pizza Month

There’s still time to take part in National Pizza Month 2021. We’ve pulled together resources to help you mark the occasion and promote your National Pizza Month campaigns in your store, in the community, virtually and on social networks. October can be anything you make it. The tools and tips in our annual National Pizza Month Pizzeria Toolkit will assist you with your unique efforts to promote your pizzeria’s National Pizza Month celebrations.

Blast the National Pizza Month hashtag on everything. Use the hashtag on social media posts, in store and on external marketing and promotional signage.

#nationalpizzamonth

Go further and add a unique hashtag specific to your brand to track its shares. Don’t forget to tag @pizzatoday so we can follow your NPM campaign.

Try out a few of these low-cost or no cost marketing ideas:

1. Run a customer recipe promotion. Invite your patrons to create your next big hit! Have customers submit recipes for topping combinations, etc. Winner gets the pizza named after them on your menu or free pizza for a year or a $500 gift card, etc.
2. Offer a National Pizza Month one-of-kind offer to your loyalty club members. Think swag, secret menu item, etc.
3. Go for a local, regional, national or world record. Guinness World Records offers several pizza-related opportunities.
4. Host a Guest Chef Takeover Night, where a local or regional chef creates a menu with pre-sale dinner event tickets at $X per person.
5. Create games with a drawing where winner receives free item or offer. (Think small games, like guess the number of pepperonis on a pizza; guess the ingredient; answer questions related to your pizzeria; in-store scavenger hunt; photo with a specific item social contest, etc.)
6. Crown an Ultimate Pizza Fan by inviting customers to submit on social media why they should be the winner.
7. Go big and raise money the entire month to support a local cause.
8. Host a Halloween party for little ones. Encourage them to “trunk or treat” for candy inside your parking lot. Give them a coupon for a free personal pizza on their next visit.
9. Host a pizza-making workshop to let customers stretch and top pizza.
10. Create a video to share with your pizzeria’s social followers on who you are and why you founded the pizzeria. Go further and create another video going behind-the-scenes to show how you make the pizza.

We have more marketing ideas and official National Pizza Month logos, media release and graphics available in the Pizzeria Operators Toolkit.