Casey’s, the beloved Midwest convenience store chain, approached Acadia with a major perception gap. Gen Z only knew Casey’s as a place to pump gas, not as the 5th largest pizza chain in the U.S.
To win with this audience, we needed to break through the noise, shift brand relevance, and make Casey’s pizza famous within Gen Z culture.
The catch? Gen Z has the shortest attention span of any generation and communicates through memes, chaos, and viral moments.
To win with this audience, Casey’s needed to shift perception completely, making sure our social media presence sounded, felt, and embodied what it means to be a Gen Z pizza lover in 2025.
We uncovered that Gen Z, raised on the internet and fluent in meme culture, gravitates toward absurdism and viral chaos.
They embrace the unexpected, the surreal, the intentionally chaotic. So instead of polished storytelling, we leaned all the way into unpredictable, meme-fluent, culturally reactive content that felt native to the scroll.
As a brand, Casey’s stands for “unexpected goodness.” After all, it’s unexpected that the best pizza in the midwest comes from a gas station. But it sure does. We brought that unexpected goodness into the heart of all that we do on social. We didn’t tell Gen Z that Casey’s pizza is craveable, affordable, and convenient; we showed it in wildly unexpected ways that traveled fast.
KEY STRATEGIES
1. Lean Into Absurd Craveability
To show just how crave-worthy and convenient Casey’s really is, we highlighted the passion of real fans. Like dunking slices into car consoles filled with ranch. Messy? Yes. Unforgettable? Also yes.
2. Prove Quality in Unexpected Ways
We flew a Casey’s pizza from Iowa to NYC, home of pizza purists, to let New Yorkers judge for themselves. Spoiler: They approved.
3. Insert Casey’s Into Pop Culture Moments
Casey’s showed up where Gen Z already was: Wicked at the Oscars, Viral dating trends, tailgate season, and even celebrating the first Pope of the Midwest. We made sure Casey’s was always in the cultural stream, not waiting on the sidelines.
4. Build Influence Through Real Community
Beyond pizza lovers, we partnered with Midwest NIL college athletes and NFL Super Bowl champion (and hometown hero) Cooper DeJean, turning influencers into believers.
5. Show Up Where You Least Expect Us
Building true community is about more than just great posts, but about engaging with that community in their day-to-day. That’s why we dedicate ourselves to scrolling the TikTok algorithm and showing up in the comment sections where you least expect us. From sitting in traffic with our fans (our comment got 79k+ likes) to taking the back roads with them, we celebrated our community in their unexpected daily life moments throughout Casey’s Country.
Casey’s has proven that social media can make a legacy brand famous among Gen Z, drive real sales, and redefine what it means to be a convenience store.
At peak during Casey’s 40th birthday pizza celebration, pizza sales doubled. Stores literally ran out of pizza.
Social didn’t just get Gen Z's attention. It made Casey’s pizza famous. And it sold a ton of it, too. 🍕🔥
