• Ad Age, Thursday, March 16, 2006 11:47 AM

Pizza Hut has a new CMO. The company announced Wednesday that Bill Ogle, currently marketing chief for the company's U.K. operation, had been named to replace Tom James, the CMO since 2002. James, a New York native, left the Dallas-based company to return to the East Coast. "There was no business reason," a company spokeswoman said. "He's a New Yorker. This was definitely his decision." James started off with a bang by increasing the fast food marketer's ad budget by $100 million, bring it to a healthy $400 million, when he took over four years ago. He then hired BBDO and launched a new ad effort that targeted busy moms instead of kids and focused on new products. The campaign helped drive 21 consecutive periods of same-store sales gains. But sales were flat the following year and the marketing strategy came under fire from David Novak, chairman-CEO of Pizza Hut parent Yum Brands.

Read the whole story at Ad Age »