Ellio's Pizza Is Selling Summer Swag Like T-shirts and Towels

By Brendan Menapace

Nowadays, no matter what product you make, whether it's apparel, electronics or food, you are an everything company. That means that you can no longer specialize in just one thing anymore. The Amazons and Walmarts of the world made sure of that. Even if you're a frozen pizza company, you need to make sure your merchandise game is on point.

Following the lead of Taco Bell, McDonald's and others, Ellio's pizza, the rectangular frozen pizza many of us practically lived on in college, is selling merchandise online as part of a "Summer of Swag" event.

The collection includes "retro-inspired T-shirts," sunglasses, beach towels, beach balls, drawstring bags, hats and other accessories that end-users can wear to the beach, pool or just around town during the summer.

You asked, we answered. Shop Ellio’s merch – get it while it’s hot! 🔥🍕🔥 https://t.co/UXN6DKSwX1 pic.twitter.com/6V0URCp73h

— Ellio's Pizza (@ElliosPizza) May 22, 2019

"If you love Ellio's pizza, you can now wear it on your sleeve—literally," Bill Whalen, executive vice president of Ellio's Pizza's parent company, said in a press release. "We're thrilled to offer a selection of fun Ellio's Coolectables items that are ideal for the summer."

Calling Ellio's fans "diehard," brand manager Melissa Vesci praised the collection's wide appeal.

"Whether they're young adults who grew up eating Ellio's pizza or busy moms who give Ellio's pizza to their children, kids and parents have loved our wholesome, four-corner pizza for more than five decades," she said. "We're thrilled to roll out our new Ellio's Coolectables product line to meet customer demand."

Advertising and marketing are everywhere, all the time. That's why billboards and beach town airplane banners exist. If a company can get people to voluntarily promote their brand by wearing a T-shirt or hat, or bringing a towel repping a frozen pizza company to the pool, then those advertising executives have accomplished their mission. That, of course, is what the promo industry is all about. And it's certainly a good sign when even frozen pizza brands are now getting in on the branded merchandise action.

And, again, nothing is just a single-product company anymore. While Ellio's has cornered the market on square pizza (that's a great pun), they still have to advertise to stay afloat in the modern dog-eat-pizza brand landscape. That means sometimes you have to appeal to the very cool youth through T-shirts that say "Bite Me," or a beach towel with a shark eating a rectangle of pizza.