IHOP

The Objective

Creating awareness for a limited-time-only food campaign​

The International House of Pancakes (IHOP) has been bringing people together for pancakes and smiles for decades. As people once again started safely dining out amidst the pandemic, IHOP wanted to get millennial-aged food lovers to the restaurant by driving mass awareness around limited-time-only products. IHOP looked to TikTok as part of its 2021 Halloween campaign to build interest and create in-store demand for these limited-time-only products at the “International Haunted House of Pancakes.”

The Solution

Extending reach and restaurant traffic with creator-led content

As an experienced advertiser on TikTok, IHOP understands the power of creator-led content to extend reach and bring in new audiences. So for its Halloween campaign, IHOP partnered with popular creator and DJ @IsaacLikes_ to serve up likable and informative In-Feed Ads that felt organic to the platform thanks to his “I LIKE YOU” personality.Creatively, the In-Feed Ads leaned into popular trends like food hacks and comedy, with @IsaacLikes_ introducing the new menu and showing viewers how to get creative with their pancakes. The funny and engaging content inspired them to head to their local IHOP to experiment with the new Halloween menu. One ad introduced the limited-time spooky menu, which included create-your-own Scary Face Pancakes, while another ad showed Isaac's six ways to eat an IHOP pancake.IHOP then used the Reach objective to reach as many users as possible while also using TikTok Ads Manager to focus on specific interest and behavior groups to get in front of food lovers who were more likely to visit their nearest IHOP. By targeting keywords like fall, autumn and pancakes, IHOP created efficiencies in connecting with the right audience to drive awareness while also realizing lower-funnel success at restaurants. IHOP then used Foursquare Attribution to measure how the ads moved the needle in getting users in-store to sink their fangs into the new, spooky menu.

The Results

Sweet Success

What a treat! The International Haunted House of Pancakes saw sweet success with IHOP’s awareness campaign, reaching over 33 million users. Most importantly, using interest and behavior targeting in TikTok Ads Managers ensured IHOP got in front of the right customers efficiently, leading to a 26% lower CPM than the national average on TikTok. The TikTok community engaged with the creator-led content, too. The @isaaclikes_ videos brought in over 134,000 clicks to the Halloween menu landing page, 289,000 likes, and 2,000 shares. Moreover, a post-campaign Brand Lift Study showed the humorous ads left a lasting impression, delivering a significant +8.4% ad recall. Awareness was the goal, but the campaign's hocus pocus enchanted the TikTok community to try the menu in stores. The Foursquare Attribution study proved that 5.42% of exposed users visited an IHOP location after seeing an ad on TikTok, a behavioral lift of 1.81% compared to those not exposed to the ads. The International House of Pancakes may be haunted, but the results are anything but scary!