Fan’s Creation Makes Toppers Pizza Menu; Jon “Scooby” Ransom’s Snack to be Unveiled January 24

Chosen by Fans on Facebook, Minneapolis-Native Jon “Scooby” Ransom Wins Free Toppers Pizza for a Year, $500 Gift Card from Toppers, and the Ultimate Grand Prize –Adding His Pizza to the Menu

Toppers Pizza has long been a brand intent on doing things its own way. The irreverent 28-unit pizza franchise has always taken its own path—successfully targeting a younger demographic and providing a wide variety of delicious menu items and toppings for its customers’ choosing. For the past few months, however, Toppers has let its Facebook fans take the wheel and create a new menu item during the recently concluded “Spank Your Pizza” social media contest.

After a month of fierce deliberation, Jon Ransom’s creatively named pizza, Jon “Scooby” Ransom’s Snack was declared the winner and next House Pizza to be added to Toppers’ menu. He also won free Toppers pizza for a year and a $500 Toppers gift card. Ransom, a Minneapolis native and sophomore at Lawrence University, had the unique advantage of experiencing Toppers both in his hometown and at college in Appleton, Wisconsin. Ransom embraced the social media aspect of the campaign by creating Facebook groups and events for his family, friends and classmates to rally around.

Soon, the Jon “Scooby” Ransom’s Snack, with ingredients including thick-cut spicy pepperoni, hand-pinched Italian sausage, ground beef , crispy bacon, black olives, and jalapenos topped with pepper jack and mozzarella cheeses on a the new Tall Boy pizza crust (the same garlicky, buttery crust of Topperstix), took on a life of its own.

“Even after convincing all my friends at home as well as my college classmates to vote for me,” said Ransom. “I was still shocked at just how many people I had never met decided to support my entry.”

The Jon “Scooby” Ransom Snack will be available at all 28 Toppers locations starting January 24.

By making Ransom’s creation the chain’s next original house pizza, Toppers has given fans an unprecedented amount of power. “We’ve never been afraid to do something different, unlike many of our larger competitors,” said Scott Iversen, Toppers’ Director of Marketing. “We want our fanatics of Toppers Pizza to be more than just customers. We want them to be involved in the very core of our business—deciding what to put in their mouths.”

As part of “Spank Your Pizza”, fans and customers alike created original pizza recipes using Toppers’ list of ingredients. After receiving over 100 submissions, 64 finalists were chosen to participate in the “Spank Your Pizza” tournament. These 64 individuals battled it out for likes and comments on Facebook for 3 weeks in a bracket-style competition, generating over 18,500 total fan votes for their respective pizzas.

In addition to giving fans a voice in the boardroom, “Spank Your Pizza” also resulted in some impressive social media statistics. During the four months of the contest, Toppers’ Facebook page increased its fan count by 62.6% and generated over 62,000 page views.

“We’ve always been proud of our cohesive identity and direction as a brand,” said Iversen, “but ‘Spank Your Pizza’ took our social media efforts to the next level.”