International House of ...Burgers?

Growing up we were constantly told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. The majority of people love breakfast food and diners and restaurants dedicated solely to breakfast help to satisfy our cravings. These are the places where you can fill up on a delicious meal of eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, waffles, and french toast for a couple of bucks. 

On June 4, 2018, one of these dedicated restaurants startled the nation by releasing an announcement that they were changing their iconic name.

Since 1958, the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) has been flippin' and servin' pancakes, and other breakfast food, so this announcement was a surprise to everyone. IHOB teased what the B could stand for and stated that it would be revealed on June 11th. They even posted polls engaging the public to guess what the B stands for and changed all the p's in their tweets to b's. 

  While many initially thought this stunt was a re-branding of the company, it actually turned out to be a clever marketing ploy generate interest for the launch of their newest menu item--Ultimate Steak-burgers. It received a lot of resistance and took the internet by storm--generating interest and frustration left and right. As many know groundswell responses can be fueled by emotion, and IHOB created a commotion among the people. According to the Wall Street Journal, within a week [of the announcement] more than 3000 articles were written and more than 8 billion impressions hit the internet. On June 11th, IHOB held the number 1, 2 and 4 Twitter trending spots. 

While IHOb was met with its fair share of resistance, this marketing campaign certainly worked in getting people talking. Other businesses even engaged on Twitter: 

This campaign went on for a week--with IHOB's social media accounts taking control of the internet. Then finally on June 11th, the much anticipated meaning of the b was released: 

In the end, IHOP successfully executed a marketing campaign that took the groundswell by surprise.  After a day or two, they changed all of their social media pages back to IHOP just in time to celebrate their 60th birthday.  Forbes asked members of the Forbes Agency Council to weigh in on this marketing stunt and the following is what they said. Aaron Henry stated "the push-back that IHOP received was all planned under their agency and creative team's direction...marketers and brands should learn to be bold in their campaigns [because] standard creative work doesn't generate growth anymore."  

By executing a successful publicity stunt, IHOP was able to build hype for the new line of Ultimate Steakburgers, which is part of an effort to attract people beyond breakfast.

In our opinion, this was a successful and bold marketing technique that generated enough interest to get the world talking. In the era where anyone can voice their opinions on platforms that the world can see, IHOP was able to creatively launch a campaign without damaging their brand. 

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK!

What are your thoughts on this marketing campaign? Do you think that this campaign was too risky? Does this make you want to try IHOP's new burgers?