Pizza Hut rebranding sees online success

The potential benefits of a rebranding exercise were in evidence yesterday (October 8th) as Pizza Hut saw record web traffic after it announced it was changing its name to Pasta Hut.

According to Hitwise, the Pasta Hut site saw double the number of UK visits as the Pizza Hut UK homepage, with yesterday being an overall record day for the company.

Almost four in ten of those who visited the Pizza Hut site went straight to the Pasta Hut website afterwards, while 43.9 per cent of all traffic to Pasta Hut was sourced from MSN UK - triple the amount seen from Google.

"Presumably the company either ran advertising or a paid search campaign on the Microsoft portal/search engine," commented Robin Goad, UK research director for Hitwise.

The rebranding came as part of an attempt to reposition the restaurant chain as a healthier option for those eating out, with the company's menu set to feature more pasta dishes than previously.