The IHOb campaign exemplifies the viral power of PR, when seamlessly orchestrated to reinvigorate consumers’ love for a brand. The unified role of planning and communications reframed IHOP’s strength in culinary innovation and evolved the brand from an all-day breakfast icon to a quality lunch and dinner destination.

We rose to the occasion by flipping the script from the International House of Pancakes to the International House of Burgers, putting the brand, its food, and its beloved place in society at the forefront of guests’ minds and on the lips of culture.

With America’s family-dining category declining, IHOP sought to transcend its best-for-breakfast fame to drive traffic during additional mealtimes.

The restaurant revered for its all-American, fluffy pancakes tackled the mission head-on by perfecting another American classic: the burger.

The task of launching burgers by a brand known for pancakes presented a unique duo of challenges. First, it was critical that we shifted America’s perception of IHOP as solely a breakfast destination. Secondly, IHOP, as the challenger brand, must stand out among the established giants. In a nation saturated with burger chains, being heard would be a feat, particularly as IHOP’s advertising budget was less than two percent of the combined budgets of the category leaders, including McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s.

IHOP needed something as big and bold as its burgers to hijack attention, spark chatter and firmly plant itself as a serious contender in the burger conversation.

For 60 years, IHOP was known and loved for its eponymous guest-favorite: pancakes. So how could the restaurant be taken seriously about its new burgers?

We flipped one letter, and the Internet flipped out. With the slightest change to an iconic acronym, IHOb was born, reawakening an entire country’s latent love for a nostalgic brand.

In an always-on world that expects an instantly gratifying answer to every question, we knew this audacious move would trigger fascination with America asking, “Are they serious?!” Changing the brand name created the emotional response we anticipated. From the initial tease to the big reveal and beyond, everyone had a reaction, a guess and an opinion, both online and offline.

We harnessed America’s disbelief to ignite curiosity, spark conversation and fuel controversy, unleashing unprecedented earned coverage, engagement, and ultimately driving consideration and trial of IHOP’s new burgers.

While a beloved brand, social listening revealed IHOP measured lower overall sentiment with burgers (48%) than competitors Bob Evans (75%) and Cracker Barrel (61%).

We needed to unlock America’s love for IHOP and channel it to our burgers, driving guest frequency and new audiences beyond breakfast diners. The message was clear: IHOP takes its Steakburgers as seriously as its pancakes.

We proved just how serious by “officially” rebranding as IHOb: International House of Burgers. Our approach grabbed attention and unlocked America’s passionate yet dormant emotions for IHOP in three phases: Tease and ignite curiosity. Reveal and spark conversation. Sustain momentum to drive sales.

The core of the idea centered on stoking a frenzy of emotion and speculation. So what better place than Twitter as the hub for the campaign—the home of constant chatter, unfounded conspiracies and aggressive opinion sharing.

A phased, end-to-end social media campaign propelled IHOP to become conductors of the cultural chaos known as IHOb.

TEASE: It started with a cryptic tweet flipping IHOP’s P to a b. For the subsequent week, we fueled the biggest guessing game in Internet history. Real-time social listening indicated when we make the next move. When skepticism rose, we changed our Twitter handle to @IHOb and leaked a photo of one IHOP changing its marquee, further sparking public and media reaction.

REVEAL: After a week of anticipation, we revealed the b celebrated our BURGERS! We seized the moment by flipping the P to b everywhere—social channels, search, Wikipedia, even IHOP LinkedIn bios. Robust media outreach and a VIb launch event generated significant conversation across earned media and influential social channels.

SUSTAIN: Over several weeks, we continued to engage social tastemakers to create mouthwatering content, targeting guests throughout the consideration funnel.

The virality of IHOb created an unforgettable moment in culture, substantiated by unprecedented awareness and coverage. The campaign generated 1.2 million tweets in the first 10 days, including unpaid engagement by Chrissy Teigen, Diplo, Questlove, Cardi B and Stephen Colbert. IHOb was simultaneously the #1, #2 and #4 Trending Topic on Twitter, out-trending the concurrent 2018 North Korea-U.S. Singapore Summit and Net Neutrality rulings.

The campaign was covered in more than 28,000 stories, delivering $113+ million in earned-media value––an 11x ROI––and more than 42.5 billion earned impressions. That comprises more digital coverage in the first week than the most successful single weeks of “Fearless Girl,” “McWhopper” and “Red Bull Stratos” campaigns combined.

Every major news, entertainment and lifestyle outlet and television personality covered the campaign, including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, James Corden, Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien and Colbert.

IHOP claimed category leadership in social share of voice and has maintained it since. The campaign propelled brand interest beyond IHOb, with 2x increase in word-of-mouth and 80% increase in ad awareness (from 25% to 45%) tracked via YouGov’s BrandIndex.

IHOb dramatically increased perception of IHOP “having great burgers” from 41% to 51%, catapulting IHOP from last place to second place among competitors. On “reveal” day, IHOP lunch and dinner sales increased 15% and 28%, respectively. IHOP quadrupled burger sales YOY during the first month following the campaign launch, selling 500,000 burgers per week, and sustained 2x lunch and dinner sales through the end of the year.