After years of building brands that consumers are passionate about, former agency executive Greg Wold goes to the brand side.
Greg Wold is no stranger to building iconic moments for brands vying for a turn from emerging to established. The award-winning former marketing executive played a key role in defining the voice of brands like Jersey Mike’s Subs, Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches and Intelligentsia Coffee. Now, the agency vet will be applying his expertise to taking Wisconsin-based pizza franchise Toppers Pizza on a pathway to becoming a legendary American pizza company.
“I am extremely happy and proud to announce that Greg Wold has joined the Toppers team as the VP of Marketing,” said Scott Gittrich, Founder and President of Toppers Pizza. “Greg has spent the last 20-plus years helping restaurant brands discover who they are, how to message that to the world, and then blowing them up.”
Wold began his business career in the music industry brokering distribution deals for independent record labels. Over the years that followed, Wold transitioned into agency land and has been a driving force behind brands consumers all know and love — most recently working with Jersey Mike’s Subs to establish its memorable “Sub Above” positioning, which helped the sandwich brand climb from 750 locations to 1,600 in just six years. Wold has also worked with Jimmy John’s, Buffalo Wild Wings and Pancheros Mexican Grill within the QSR and fast casual segments.
The brand strategist also put Wisconsin Cheese back on the map during his time with Shine Advertising, guiding the beloved brand’s marketing strategy from zero percent digital to 90% digital in just two years.
Now, he will take his turn at Toppers.
“Toppers has been killing it for almost 30 years, and after seeing how we thrived during a global pandemic, we know now is the time for us to take our game up a notch,” said Gittrich. “Greg is an incredibly gifted marketer and really knows how to identify a brand’s potential.”
Despite a pandemic-affected restaurant industry, the 65-unit pizza brand has had an impressive year, seeing record-breaking year-over-year sales of 15% and three new stores set to open by the end of 2020.
“Toppers’ one-of-a-kind product puts big-chain pizza to shame and creates passionate consumers that never settle for boring pizza,” said Wold. “I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of this brand.”
Capitalizing on the booming better pizza category and fueled by the passion of Founder & President Scott Gittrich and a team of experienced industry veterans, Toppers Pizza has formulated the perfect recipe to appeal to both pizza enthusiasts and savvy investors. Headquartered in Wisconsin, Toppers is committed to quality and consistency throughout the system, and plans to maintain corporate ownership of 25 percent of all locations while the brand expands to continuously improve on best practices and product development. Toppers fanatics love the brand’s fresh, handmade and customizable pizza baked in about 360 seconds and delivered extremely fast, with more than a million combinations of fresh, high quality toppings, and the brand’s signature line of flavored Topperstix and baked Buffalo wings. In 2018, Entrepreneur Magazine ranked Toppers as one of the Top 200 Food-Based Franchises. For more information on Toppers Pizza, visit https://www.toppers.com.
