IHOP’s name campaign shows breakfast brand is serious about burgers, too

Professors of marketing chew on the publicity stunt’s success and best practices for similar promotions on social media.

When venerable restaurant chain International House of Pancakes took to social media to announce it would be changing its signature name, marketing professors like Bret Giles took notice about what was to come.

With much fanfare, the eatery that is known to generations of blue-roofed devotees as IHOP, revealed that it would be flipping — no, not it’s pancakes — but its last letter to a “b,” and then let Twitterdom go wild.

It changed its Twitter handle to the new acronym. A clock on its website counted down to the big reveal. An online poll asked what the public thought the b would be. Perhaps biscuits were the new path? Better yet, bacon. Or how about bananas?

On June 11, Giles and the rest learned that the 60-year-old breakfast mainstay was looking to inject some new sizzle into the brand, using the campaign to promote its new lineup of “b-urgers” in a b-ig way. Temporarily flipping the “p” to a “b” in its iconic name definitely got the attention of pancake and burger lovers alike.

Burger buzz hit or miss?

“By and large, I think it was an effective campaign,” says Giles, a marketing professor of practice. “It got people talking about a restaurant that no one thinks about anymore. Think about it this way: You’re IHOP, and you need something that makes people continue to talk about you and help you remain relevant.”

Giles, a 30-year marketing veteran, says creating a little buzz for the company, if only for a short time, is essential in a marketplace jampacked with breakfast spots locally and nationwide.

It also was a worthwhile attempt to try to reposition the eatery in the minds of a younger audience, maybe those who might have stayed away from a brand that had become a bit stale over the years.

He says the company’s campaign, conducted with the help of New York City-based advertising agency Droga5, did an excellent job of getting traditional media to take notice and spread its message for free.

Not only was the burger campaign featured in trade publications, but also in social media and traditional outlets like CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. A job, er, well done, according to Giles.

“It took on a life of its own for a while, and that’s always a good thing,” he says. “What you’re trying to do is put something out there and elicit some earned media.”

Giles says the campaign also was spread by “micro-influencers,” individuals with a healthy number of social media followers as well as those who already are advocates for the brand.

So successful was the company’s effort, Giles says, that it made him think about grabbing a bite there — albeit for a brief moment.

I haven’t been to an IHOP in eight years, and frankly I haven’t even thought about going there in that time. It did make me think about going to the one near campus for pancakes. But I didn’t.&nbsp

The lighthearted, whimsical campaign was met with a playful reaction by at least two burger behemoths following IHOb’s product rollout.

For Wendy’s, the response was swift: “Remember when you were like 7 and thought changing your name to Thunder BearSword would be super cool?” the company tweeted on its official account. “Like that, but our cheeseburgers are still better.”

Not to be outdone, Whataburger was short and to the point: “As much as we love our pancakes, we'd never change our name to Whatapancake.”

“I wouldn’t consider that hijacking the news of the brand,” says Giles, adding that such a reaction was to be expected by the two companies. “As long as you stay on tone, on brand, and on voice, there’s nothing wrong with using that opportunity. I don’t think it hurt anyone.”

Social media blitz gone bad

But that’s not always the case these days as more and more businesses are taking to social media to promote their products, brands, and companies to a digital audience, says Clinical Assistant Professor of Marketing Nancy Gray.

Gray says the marketing landscape is littered with such campaigns large and small, both here and abroad, on any given week. Some work, others do not, and still others can be disasters.

“These things happen all the time, but they aren’t always successful,” she says.

They are all trying to get the world’s attention on their brand through means that aren’t traditional advertising. Some miss the mark.&nbsp

Recent examples of relatively weak efforts include Sonic’s Pickle Juice Slush, a sweet and tart concoction made available on the same day that IHOP became IHOb.

There’s Domino’s Pizza, the Michigan-based mega-chain that recently launched a campaign to pave potholes in various U.S. cities. After all, pizzas can be a hot commodity when treated with the proper care.

“Potholes, cracks, and bumps in the road can cause irreversible damage to your pizza during the drive home from Domino’s,” according to a company website. “We can’t stand by and let your cheese slide to one side, your toppings get un-topped, or your boxes get flipped.”

But then there are the terrible misses, Gray says. Like the Mastercard campaign that sought to donate 10,000 meals to feed children in Latin America for soccer goals scored by Argentina star Lionel Messi and Brazil’s Neymar in the 2018 World Cup.

The idea from the non-World Cup sponsor Mastercard brought some harsh criticism in social media circles, saying the company was trivializing the issue and should have donated the meals regardless. One critic commented that the company was turning the event into the “Hunger Games.” Mastercard withdrew from the campaign.

They forgot that with a single click, you could be heard around the world in a fraction of a second. They get a yellow (warning) card.&nbsp

But Gray is handing out a red card — in soccer parlance an automatic boot from the game — to U.K. cosmetics retailer Lush for a campaign that focused on undercover police operations that occurred there in the past.

That’s not exactly what one would expect coming from a cosmetics company that prides itself on fresh and healthy offerings, Gray says. She adds that social issues can be OK but have to be relevant to the brand.

“Lush is an extreme example of a brand that has lost its way,” she explains. “My advice to brands is to be authentic to who you are because people are not morons and they can spot hypocrisy 100 miles away.”