Why every brand is now their own media company, featuring Prince Street Pizza

0:02Pam Kaufman:Marketers have always had to choose. Build your brand or drive sales. With YouTube, you can do both. It's where the most trusted creators and powerful AI converge to create and convert demand for your brand. That's why YouTube drives higher long-term return on ad spend versus TV, paid social, or streaming. There's no more choosing between brand or results. With one platform, you get both. Learn more at g.co slash business slash YouTube.

0:38Pam Kaufman:Affiliate marketing is having a real moment, but for some brands, it's still uncharted territory. Do you start with a platform or with publications? Who is actually making money? We're looking into this for an episode of this show, but first we want to hear from you. Send us your biggest questions around affiliate marketing. We want to hear your frustrations and even your hot takes. If you're running a program or working with creators or just trying to figure out if it's worth your time, let us know what you're experiencing. Send me an email at mdaniels at modernretail.co. That's M-D-A-N-I-E-L-S at modernretail.co.

1:19Pam Kaufman:You can send me a message or even send me a voice memo. And we'll unpack it all in an upcoming episode.

1:35Nick Turco:Hello and welcome to the Modern Retail Podcast, our show that covers the ways the retail industry is changing and modernizing. I am senior reporter Gabby Barco. I am here with special projects editor, Melissa Daniels. Hi, Gabby. How are you? I'm good. I'm excited for today's episode because we are going to be talking about a really exciting topic, which is in-house content. So in the age of front-facing vertical video, there is a seemingly endless appetite for new content. And so brands have recognized this and they are trying to create their own content series to feed the algorithm. For example, in January, we saw Gap, Inc.

2:22Nick Turco:announced that they were creating a new role, the chief entertainment officer, where Pam Kaufman will lead their fashion-tainment strategy. But Gap is not the only one. David's Bridal now has Breaking Bridal, a series documenting non-traditional weddings. Financial company Built produces Roomies, a scripted mockumentary series about 20-somethings living in New York. These are more than extended commercials. They are fully produced, standalone series. Also getting in on original content is Prince Street Pizza. Since September 2025, the New York City-based Pizza Shop has been putting out episodes of Delivering Happiness, an original series starring actor Nick Turturro and produced by Lawrence Longo, the CEO of Prince Street Pizza and Irv's Burgers, amongst others.

3:18Prince Street Pizza:You know, Hollywood's a tough town. One day you're on the red carpet,

3:23Nick Turco:the next day you're on your couch wondering, what the hell happened? I'm here to do something that brings me happiness. You know what that is?

3:30Prince Street Pizza:Delivering pizza. But here's the catch. Every delivery is a show, a new guest, a new story. This is passion. Prince Street has some crazy service, huh? I'm Nick DiToro, and this is Delivering Happiness.

3:43Nick Turco:Prince Street Pizza is in the middle of a national expansion with locations in Nashville and Charleston opening up next. And so delivering happiness is part of the brand awareness strategy as the chain's presence grows. We have Lawrence on the show today to talk about why storytelling is so important for building a brand, what it takes to invest in a big project like this, and whether or not it helps drive sales. Lawrence, welcome to the Modern Retail Podcast.

4:11Prince Street Pizza:Thank you for having me.

4:13Nick Turco:I guess my first question is, can you give us a short elevator pitch for what delivering happiness is for the listeners who aren't familiar?

4:22Prince Street Pizza:Yeah, it's a slice of life series slash podcast where a washed up actor becomes a pizza delivery driver and every delivery is a new episode. And I say washed up very lightly because, you know, Nick Turturro is not washed up. He just started a movie with John Turturro, and he's been acting in all the Adam Sandler movies. And recently he's been ranting and raving about the love and hate for the New York Yankees on his social media. It really turns every pizza delivery into an episode. And what better way to have a conversation with someone than over a slice of pizza?

5:05Pam Kaufman:So I'd love to hear a little bit about the way that you and your team kind of figure out what each episode is going to be about. You know, how much of that is Nick, you know, taking charge? How much of it is you all saying, hey, here's a great guest that we could deliver a pizza to? You know, how do you just sort of figure out what the content is going to look like week after week?

5:26Prince Street Pizza:Well, the good thing of us being a very small and nimble crew is that we can be reactive and we can really take advantage of opportunities. So, you know, as with Prince Street, we're always surrounded by celebrities. You know, I do a lot of like collaborations. And, you know, just from mine and Nick's background in Hollywood, we're able to get some really cool guests. um originally when i first set out to create the series i was like anybody could be a guest you know and and i truly still believe that because everyone's got a story to tell anybody could be interesting it's just how you talk to them and and nick does a great job interviewing and despite him being an actor and most actors just like to listen to themselves talk he he is definitely somebody who's been you know just getting better and better as an interviewer in terms of like producing the shows and like saying, Hey, this is what we're going to ask.

6:29Prince Street Pizza:Yeah. Like when we know we're going to be interviewing like say Dana White, you know, we know what fights are coming up. We know like kind of things that we're going to ask them that, you know, the viewers are going to be really excited to, to hear, you know, cause you want to, out of these longer form videos, you want to pick certain moments that are like that could go viral, but you never really know what's going to go viral. So you, you, you, but you want to kind of lay up some questions that could potentially go viral. What's funny when we, I brought up Dana White, because when we did interview him, certain things that we asked, ended up, they, they were like, Hey, Prince Street Pizza reports that Dana White turned down or tried to buy a rookie card for$4 million.

7:20Prince Street Pizza:And that thing went viral. And they're giving us credit as the news source. So those are things that we try and set up to go viral. But it doesn't always happen. But yeah, I mean, I think you let a conversation go. And you can steer it the way you want it to go. But the idea with Delivering Happiness is that it's an evergreen show, meaning that if you were listening to it in three months from now, you'd still be excited about it. So we don't want to be too topical because then the show is like only for that moment in time. And the idea with these shows being a slice of life is that you should be able to hear it, like I said, in two or three years from now.

8:11Prince Street Pizza:it should still be relevant you know from spike lee talking about how he how he eats pizza how do you fall what how do you eat a pizza tell him fold it in half in half like this right it's a triangle that's always relevant to um iced tea giving dating events that never gets old You know what I mean? So so those are kind of like the the we don't we have a handful of questions. And my my producer, who is Nick Nick Totoro, Nick Totoro's son, he's really he's really gets does his research about the the interviewee. And, you know, we try and ask questions that really haven't been asked before in the interviews.

9:01Nick Turco:Well, it sounds like Delivering Happiness has already achieved some pretty early success where it's got over 11 million views across platforms and you've had some pretty big guests like you mentioned. So I guess what's next for this plan to create, you know, a media company under the Prince Street Pizza banner? Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, getting in front of as many people as possible.

9:31Prince Street Pizza:And we're currently in talks with some major media partners on the scaling of this and doing it on different, you know, not just YouTube, but on different social media platforms, and really giving it the exposure that, you know, obviously, I think it deserves. you know I really I think really when you know and I don't know if this is gonna be another content but I think what makes delivering happiness really special from let's say the typical brand that creates content is that most people think like let's create a commercial for our brand and I think that where delivering happiness delivers well is that it's not about Prince Street.

10:17Prince Street Pizza:It's not about how good the pizza is. That's just the delivery point of how we've come together. Delivery driver meets the person ordering the pizza and they have a conversation over it. So, you know, I think we're, you know, when I say we're building a media company, well, the way brands should be thinking about their business is that we're all media companies. we're all building a community, right? We all have people who are engaged in our product and want more than just the product. And I think that the fact that everybody eats pizza, whether you're a celebrity or a doctor or anybody, it's just like I said, we have some of our best conversations over food.

11:07Prince Street Pizza:So it was just the natural way for it to happen. um the interesting way of how i got a celebrity to do it was that he's obsessed with our pizzeria he's obsessed with pizza and he wanted to invest in the business and finally i let him invest in the business and i said on one condition you got to deliver pizzas when we open up our brooklyn store uh that took a lot longer to open than i had anticipated so i said in the meantime why don't we create a series and that's where I created Delivering Happiness. And at first, Nick wasn't really bought in. He's like, I'm not a washed up actor. I know. I was like, no, but we got to believe that you're like the underdog story.

11:48Prince Street Pizza:Why the hell would you be delivering pizzas if you're a successful actor? You know what I mean? So it took him a little bit to get over that hump, but I was trying to build that underdog story. So people would like drop their guard when they were talking to him and you know it worked out it was it's been it's been great like i said like ice tea giving us love advice was like amazing and um you know we've had like co-stars like so we've had other delivery drivers that join nick like godfrey the comedian who you know just comes on and raises hell on the show and uh they have a great banter he's not known as godfrey when he puts on his pizza delivery hat.

12:30Prince Street Pizza:He's known as Lorenzo. So he thinks he's part Sicilian, which is it's a lot of fun, you know.

12:39Pam Kaufman:Yeah, it just seems like you've been able to bring so many great moments to life through this style of show. But I'm curious, you know, because we are hearing about so many brands wanting to get into original content. If you can break down a little bit about what happens behind the scenes for production, you know, is this something that, you know, you have a whole, I know you mentioned a small team, but like, are there weekly meetings? How much time do you have to put into it? And how do you budget for it? You know, knowing that you have many other probably marketing channels to play in.

13:11Prince Street Pizza:As much as people think we like spend a lot of money in marketing, we don't spend as much as like the typical brand. I think that, you know, in terms of the crew, like I said, I do have a small crew. There's two of us, two people who shoot it nick who's a producer who's nick to turro's son and uh kevin who's does uh the shooting and he does the editing so it's a two-man crew plus nick to turro and myself but like i'm the ceo of a restaurant business so as much as i like to get involved in delivering happiness i don't have that much time i created the idea i kind of set them like on their way i do notes you know i helped them get talent on the show but these guys these guys are like professionals and they do it themselves and they edit it and and nick nick is a great producer he knows exactly what's what works what questions to have his dad ask the funniest part of the show and why i want to add a third cameraman is seeing nick and his son fight when and then see them fight in front of the celebrity or the talent and the talent's like what the hell's going on like don't worry

14:25Pam Kaufman:their son their father's son totally fine it's so new york it's very it's very new york and

14:33Prince Street Pizza:i like want to break that fourth wall where you're like oh my god like you're actually seeing them fight with each other on the camera um but i can't afford a third cameraman yet right so plans um yeah in terms of budgeting it um

14:51Prince Street Pizza:me and nick have a partnership we said you know when we sell the show we'll we'll we'll split the split the show i pay for the show he does it um he does it for free and we i pay the camera guy and the editor you know and and they're on salary because i basically created this you know my hospitality company that does more than just delivering happiness where we create different types of content. And, you know, with every kind of restaurant that I have or brand I have, I'm creating content around the brand.

15:25Nick Turco:Yeah, this is actually a great time to ask you a little bit about that background and what you've learned that you're bringing to delivering happiness, because it sounds like you have some experience on the production side. So like, I don't know, maybe what works today that didn't work two years ago, right? On YouTube or Instagram or whatnot.

15:44Prince Street Pizza:Like I said, it's like knowing what your brand, knowing what you're trying to get out of the brand. Like, even though I say it's not a commercial, I'm still like, hey, we got to eat the pizza. Like, and hopefully have a good reaction and make sure you're getting that celebrity's reaction on the show when he's eating it, you know? And if they say something great, than amazing. That's the natural, most authentic commercial that you could have. I think that two years ago, it was tough to break into creating content. But as technologies evolved, I mean, you see it like anybody can create content. I think the key with creating content is It's consistency and persistence, meaning that you've got to continue doing it and you can't stop doing it.

16:39Prince Street Pizza:I was having a conversation with somebody and I was like, if Mr. Beast stopped after two years, he wouldn't be Mr. Beast. It's like Mr. Beast, his first year had 300 followers on YouTube. Then the second year, he had like two. And I'm making these numbers up, but it was something like that. Then he had 2 ,000 the second year. The third year, he had 10 ,000. And it wasn't until the fourth year that he broke 100 ,000 or whatever it was. And then obviously it snowballed from there. But I think being consistent and persistent on what you're doing. And if you really believe in it, you just got to keep on going.

17:18Prince Street Pizza:And the truth is, when we started launching our episodes, people were commenting about it. People were liking it. Even Nick Totoro was getting people going, oh, man, I saw that show you're doing. And I think at that moment, we knew that we had something special. And then, you know, so we did the rounds because like, if you look, Netflix is doing vertical content and like all in shorter form content and everybody's getting into podcast. Right. So my background of being a producer has helped me because not only because like I have some good contacts, but I understand how to produce things. you know i also have ways to like figure out how to sell them right and and i think i mentioned we're we're in the midst of doing a deal with a major major network and platform where this thing is going to go worldwide and it will be on every podcast and station uh available so it's pretty

18:19Nick Turco:exciting can you tell us any sort of tidbits about anything that sprung out of this show for example, have you had to make logistic changes like creating separate pages for it right outside or spinning it out of the Prince Street accounts or doing collaborations? Yeah.

18:40Prince Street Pizza:So, you know, I incorporate Delivering Happiness into all the collaborations we do. Like this Sunday, I have a collaboration happening with Ashley Graham. And part of the deal is that you've got to be on delivering happiness right um so however you know with delivering happiness and it being so raw and like a lot of swear words it's not really family friendly friendly family content and uh we got shadow banned on one of the plot one of the social media platforms because i think godfrey was going a little and nick were going a little too crazy in an episode with their swearing and vulgarity. It was pure comedy and entertainment.

19:27Like everybody like loved it, but it was flagged.

19:31Nick Turco:That's a challenge though, right? Of creating original content. There's always a double-edged sword.

19:37Prince Street Pizza:A hundred percent. So what I did with that was I just created our own channel on Instagram called Delivering Happiness. And that channel does all the clips for Delivering Happiness. And now Prince Street takes whatever clips aren't necessarily viral, but pertain to eating the pizza, them talking about Prince Street. because like I said, even though it's not a commercial, within those 40 minutes, we have two or three clips of a pizza moment, whether it's the crunch when the first bite, whether it's the pepperoni falling on the person's shirt and staining their shirt and them getting upset, whether it's their reaction of like, holy shit, this is the best pizza I've ever had.

20:26Prince Street Pizza:Those are the moments that I put on our social channel because at the end of the day, people are following our Instagram not to see Nick Turturro necessarily delivering pizza. They want pizza content, right? So, you know, even though the show I created that was supposed to be for like Instagram or TikTok, it ended up being those sort of the clips are for those networks, not necessarily everything. Because people were like being like, what's going on with Prince Street's Instagram? It's like all Nick Turturro and delivering pizzas. And, you know, so there's a quick lesson that I learned. Like, you know, my social media manager was like, why do you even need me?

21:06Prince Street Pizza:This is just like all delivering happiness, you know. And when you're creating and you're producing and you're an entrepreneur or a business person, you always got to be looking at your business, looking at your audience, giving your audience what they really want, what they're asking for, you know. And I think having a small crew and not being corporately owned is a benefit for any young company creating content these days.

21:35Pam Kaufman:Yeah, I think that was a really good example of you being able to take the clips that really pertain to, you know, the pizza and transactional part of the business, because I could see brands almost trying to like micromanage a story or a piece of content in a way to make it like too much about the brand where then it does just wind up feeling like a commercial. And then at that point, like, why are you doing this? Why aren't you just making an ad instead? You know?