Why Sundance?

Many people have asked us why we agreed to become an "official provider" of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Why would a pizza franchise company with 40 locations in states throughout the U.S. want to support an internationally renowned independent film festival?

The answer is simple: exposure

At the moment, Nick-N-Willy's is a small pizza franchise company but we have plans to grow and get much, much bigger. We want more people to try our delicious pizza, calzones, focaccia sandwiches, wings, salads and desserts because we think our food tastes better. We also want to invite more people to partner with us as franchisees because we also believe our franchising model is better.

The 2010 Sundance Film Festival has given us the opportunity to reach out to about 50,000 people at the event. Most of them from the United States, but many from other parts of the world. The festival is located in an area where we have two restaurants - one in Park City, the other in Salt Lake City. The event has also given us a chance to feed 3,000 people, most of whom are from the Park City area and other markets where we have restaurants. All of these people are new potential customers and franchisees.

In addition, we have leveraged our sponsorship of Sundance through "Official Provider" branding, social media and media relations, and managed to capture new audiences through newspaper articles, radio interviews, Twitter, Facebook and blog posts.

Total exposure has exceeded the value of our investment and we're pleased with the results.

Overall it's been a win-win for everyone. We got the exposure we wanted and festival organizers got the best pizza for their event!

Nick-N-Willy's Vice President of Operations, Paola Rossi explains more about our contribution to Sundance and why we wanted to get involved.

Click below to listen to our interview with Paola Rossi, VP of Operations at Nick-N-Willy's Pizza:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q73FMReJrHI

A Day in the Life of "Nick", the Pizza Box Man at Sundance

The day started with a little snow which worried our friend "Nick", the pizza box man. He had a full day of pizza deliveries ahead of him to hundreds of festival volunteers, but even just a bit of snow could cause serious damage to a guy made out of cardboard!


Knowing that the volunteers depended on him and that a hot slice of pizza was the best cure for anyone’s appetite on a cold winter day, Nick was determined not to let the slushy snow get the best of him. He headed into the Park City Nick-N-Willy’s to start preparing for a busy day ahead of pizza deliveries. He helped to get the oven fired up and the prepare all the fresh ingredients to the quality standards of a Nick-N-Willy’s pizza. Nick and his team then went to the streets armed with pizzas, salads, and focaccia sandwiches ready to feed hundreds of hungry festival volunteers.

While delivering pizza from one theater to the next, Nick was desperately hoping to catch a glimpse of a few celebrities amongst the crowds. Just as he was pulling up to make his final pizza delivery at the Eccles Theater, he thought he saw actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman jumping into a taxi. The event is crawling with movie stars and film makers. If only Nick could get a box of pizza into their hands!

Star struck, he forged on to deliver piping hot pizzas to the eagerly awaiting volunteers. As he entered the theatre he was greeted like a celebrity by all the volunteers who were thrilled to be receiving Nick-N-Willy’s pizza. This couldn’t have made Nick more pleased as he passed out all of his favorite pizza recipes like the Aegean, Taste of Tuscany, and the Big Kahuna. He became even more proud as he heard encouraging comments from around the room like “I love the sauce!”, “Delicious!”“The crust is amazing!” and even, "This is the best pizza I’ve ever had!"

Nick could feel his box cheeks flush and his cardboard knees go weak. This was the reason for his existence - to spread his passion for Nick-N-Willy’s and his love of pizza.

Walking back to his car Nick glanced at his watch seeing it was only 2:30 and as much fun as he had making everyone so happy, he couldn’t resist the opportunity to take in a slice of the slopes to reward himself for all the hard work he had done that day. He dashed over to the mountain where he was able to get in a few runs (very carefully) prior to closing time.

As night time began to fall upon Park City, Nick had an “out of box” experience as he reflected on the day’s events and knew that each person he met today would remember him and the delicious pizza he provided. As he laid his box head to rest, he fell into a deep sleep and dreamed of pepperoni slices, gooey cheese and crispy thin crusts being enjoyed by all.

Sundance Film Festival Feast Provider

Sonia Bernard-McCall slices pies at Nick-N-Willy's in Park City, Utah

What does it take to be an official provider of pizza for 3,000 volunteers at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival? The answer is great tasting pizza, an organized team and a strong leader with a passion for pizza. Sonia Bernard-McCall is the owner of the Nick-N-Willy's in Park City and she is the reason 3,000 festival volunteers will be able to enjoy hot, delicious pizza for free from Nick-N-Willy's. Sonia and her team have been able to seemlessly keep up with the demanding pizza delivery schedule without ever missing a beat. Every day for the last few weeks Sonia's been rallying her crew to bake and deliver volumes of pizzas to hundreds hungry people.

To Sonia, the exposure at the festival is already paying off. A large majority of the volunteers are from the Park City area and Sonia expects most of them will become Nick-N-Willy's customers after they taste her incredible pizza made with the freshest ingredients and signature pizza dough recipe. The new customers are already streaming in.




Sonia's goal is to share her passion for pizza with as many people as possible. By participating in Sundance, the biggest event in her community, she's doing exactly that.

Click here to hear an interview with Sonia about her store's participation in the 2010 Sundance Film Festival

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgfoUyvC-OU

Sundance Star Spotting

Celebrity watching at Sundance isn't necessarily as easy as you'd think it would be - at least it hasn't been for us. We'd heard that this year there were going to be lots of great actors milling about the festival but we hadn't seen anyone yet. We started to think that maybe it was because we didn't have the inside scoop on where the celebrities were hanging out, or maybe we were just too busy delivering pizza and not paying enough attention!

I have to admit, we were starting to get discouraged a bit. We'd been at the festival a few days and still hadn't seen a spec of stardom (at least none we'd recognized). Not even a glimmer of glamour - nothing! Sure we'd heard rumblings that Jessica Alba, James Franco and Kristen Stewart were in town, but we sure hadn't any luck spotting them. We would enter a restaurant and the hostess would say, "You just missed Ben Affleck!" or we'd hear people saying, "Did you see what Paris (Hilton) was wearing?" We'd scoured Main Street, screenings, parties and panel discussions but our timing must have been off, that is until we went to see the premiere of "Get Low".

We clearly hadn't done our research on the film when we were star struck to discover legendary comedic actor, Bill Murray in our midst! There he was standing outside the theatre with a small entourage. A real live movie star in the flesh! And one talented enough to be cast in an independent film at Sundance! We're not sure why he had a crutch but he was pleasant and smiled for the few people who noticed him before being led into the theatre.

Bill Murray outside the Eccles Theatre at Sundance.

We thought that was it until the premiere started and out he walked onto the stage, followed by more stars! Sissy Spacek and veteran actor, Robert Duvall both joined Murray and were introduced as the stars of "Get Low". It was pretty exciting to see these celebrities up close and then watch them perform in the incredible film that followed. Following the screening, they once again came out on the stage for an informal question and answer period with a huge audience full of people. A few brave souls raised their voices to ask questions about their experiences in the film and in true character, Bill Murray commanded the stage and had the audience roaring in laughter.

Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Bill Murray at Sundance Q & A session for premiere of "Get Low"

Click below to watch a funny video clip from the Q & A at "Get Low: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch3Qpw5vgT4

It's official, we're hooked on star gazing! Hopefully there are many more stars in our future!

The Real Stars of the Sundance Show.

It's no doubt that the volunteers at Sundance are an integral part of making the event run efficiently. Some may say they're actually the real stars of the show here. The Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization, therefore it relies heavily on donations, sponsors and the dedication of thousands of people - many of whom don't get paid a cent.

Festival volunteers enjoying our pizza.

We've noticed the volunteers everywhere at the resort. They can be seen in the theatres, at the info booths and the box office, and even directing traffic. This year 1,600 people have graciously donated their time to be a part of this world renowned festival. Sure, they get to see some fantastic screenings and are fed great meals from Nick-N-Willy's pizza, but for the most, they're worked hard over the course of the 10-day event.


We had the chance to speak with Emily Aagaard, the Manager of the Sundance Festival Volunteers, to learn more about how the volunteer operation works, why Sundance values having a pizza sponsor this year, and what the volunteers really think about Nick-N-Willy's Pizza!

Interviewing Emily Aagaard, Manager of Sundance Festival Volunteers

Click here to watch our video interview - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lk4wsg1YVM

WALL OF FAME - Nick-N-Willy's Valencia

What do you get when you mix delicious pizza, a worthy cause and an afternoon of fun? The ultimate pizza party, of course! That's exactly what happened last weekend when Nick-N-Willy's celebrated the new ownership of its freshly renovated restaurant in Valencia, California.

Franchise owners, Ray Shirani and Abbas and Sean Moshrefi, along with Nick-N-Willy's President, Richard Weil treated the people of Valencia to an afternoon of free pizza samples, live music and family festivities with face painting, balloon twisting and a pizza making contest just for kids. The contest was a fun (and messy) activity that kids of all ages enjoyed. They were invited to get creative and pick any toppings of their choice to make their own special pizzas. Many of them came up with fun ways to make pizza faces and uniquely cheesy creations. The best part for the kids was eating their delicious personal pizzas fresh from the Nick-N-Willy's woodstone oven.

But it wasn't only the kids who got in on the pizza making action! Local school representatives battled it out in a pepperoni pizza making competition called the Nick-N-Willy's "Compete For A Cause" contest. They tossed, rolled, slathered and sprinkled their way to pizza perfection in what was an extremely close race. In the end, it was the Principal of Rancho Pico High School who reigned supreme, winning a donation of $600 for her school.

Santa Clarita Mayor Frank Ferry also joined in the festivities to officially open the restaurant and present a grand opening certificate to the new Valencia franchise owners. As part of their community giving program, Ray, Abbas and Sean made a special donation to the Firemen's Memorial Fund.

Local radio station KHTS - 1220 AM conducted a live radio remote for part of the day. Announcer, Jon Dell conducted a number of interviews with the franchise owners, Richard Weil, the Mayor and some of the people attending the grand opening.

All in all the event was a huge success and a great way to kick off many more pizza parties at the Nick-N-Willy's in Valencia!

http://www.nicknwillys.com/