Applebee's
Applebee's
Turning a viral TikTok phenomenon into sales.
Social listening, consumer research, campaign strategic brief, creative ideation, campaign recommendation, integrated media plan, executional oversight of PR, social media monitoring/engagement, influencers and measurement reports.
Due to the pandemic, Applebee's had lost team members, revenue and its role as the neighborhood gathering place.
It’s not every day a PR opportunity hits you smack between the ears. But that’s what happened when country singer Walker Hayes released “Fancy Like,” a song celebrating the simple life with a catchy refrain about date night at Applebee’s (“Yeah, we fancy like Applebee’s on a date night…”). The song, accompanied by a TikTok video of Walker and his daughter, inspired fans to head to Applebee’s to do the viral “Fancy Like” dance.
The strategy was straightforward: collaborate with Walker Hayes to take full advantage of the viral moment and create a “Fancy Like” Date Night at Applebee’s campaign by bringing back the Oreo Shake to 1,5000 restaurants across the country in weeks, instead of months.
Applebee’s outpaced sales of competitors by 9.3% during the same time period.
Beyond the 700,000+ TikTok uploads using the song, more than one billion people have seen the Walker Hayes Applebee’s story and it has permeated into popular culture, with everyone from Shaq to Amy Adams showing off their “Fancy Like” dance moves.
Drove a 43% share of voice for Applebee’s among its four leading competitors.
Generated more than 4.3+ billion earned media impressions.
12 million organic views of the ad spots on YouTube.
Increased social mentions of Applebee’s and “Date Night” by 215%.