Papa John’s is giving mattress shoppers free pizza for a year as part of a partnership with retailer Raymour and Flanigan.
From May 30 to June 13, customers who purchase a mattress from Raymour and Flanigan will receive a voucher for free Papa Johns pizza for a year. The offer is good on “most” mattresses, including Tempur-Pedic, Beautyrest, King Koil, Serta and others.
According to the Raymour and Flanigan promotional website, an alternate pizza provider will be offered to customers in Rochester, NY.
Neither brand offered an explanation for this unusual team-up, other than the campaign slogan, “Mattresses shouldn’t come in a box—pizzas do.” This is Papa John’s first partnership with a mattress retailer.
The 30-second video campaign attacks companies that offer mattresses online, shipping the product to consumers without allowing them to view them in a showroom. The clip shows a couple eating Papa John’s pizza and wondering why anyone would risk buying a mattress in a box that they have never seen before.
The global mattress market is expected to reach $43.1 billion by the year 2024, according to Transparency Market Research. Traditional retailers face mounting competition from direct to consumer brands like Purple, Leesa and others that target young consumers on a budget.
Direct-to -onsumer mattress brand Nectar Sleep claims to sell more than 1,000 mattresses per day and garnered revenues of $55 million during its first year.
As for Papa John’s, the company may be taking a hit on the price of pizza in order to return to the public’s good graces.
Papa John’s found itself under public scrutiny after its CEO John Schnatter voiced his concerns about NFL players staging a protest during the National Anthem. Papa John’s pulled the NFL logo off its boxes and commercials, but Schnatter apologized when stocks dropped 12 percent.
In February, Papa John’s announced that it will no longer be the official pizza for the NFL, after which stocks fell seven percent.
