After 9 consecutive years of growth, Denny’s was feeling the effects of the pandemic on its business in the shape of media cutbacks in the first half of 2021 causing a loss of relevance with a younger, multicultural Gen Z and Millennial audience. The brand reclaimed its stance as ‘America’s Diner’ with this audience by bringing forth its new brand platform: Open for Anything, which tied a brand truth about Denny’s being a go-to place for a wide-array of creative menu items with its audience’s truth around the craving for creativity and self expression.

To bring this new platform to life in a way that could drive relevance with this target, Denny’s needed a connection-driving social-first campaign that could drive cultural attention, favorable conversation and consideration, engagement and consequent restaurant traffic.

Determined to serve and celebrate the next generation of customers who are defining culture through creativity and self-expression – particularly on social media – Denny’s developed the ‘Open for Anything’ influencer program. A simultaneous celebration of the Denny’s 100+ ingredients, expansive menu and its customer’s values, the program idea was to invite 24 unique creators - given Denny’s connect to open 24/7, to co-create and launch 12 ‘new’ meals, using only Denny’s ingredients.

Denny’s was set on celebrating the inherent creativity of its food and in all people in a big way by creating talent pairings as unique and unexpected as the Denny’s menu. So, selecting these 24 creators required striking a balance between appealing to the target audience’s interests to drive cultural relevance and selecting partners that could also deliver on driving maximum reach. As an ode to Denny’s mix-and-match offerings, we decided to pair creators to create unexpected menu items that made for interesting stories.

As such, Denny’s set out to to recruit a mix of internet-focused and experience-focused creators, ranging from chefs (i.e. influencers who create with food for fun, no professional grade necessary) to lifestyle mavens who intersected with audience interests (i.e. influencers with a passion for gaming, music and fashion) and Gen Z darlings (i.e. established internet personalities who could create relatable short-form content).

24 influencer partners were identified and paired up with the goal of facilitating unexpected food creations. They were empowered to create their meal from scratch, name it, and show the serve. The items – a reflection of our partners’ tastes and personalities – became available nationwide under the “Social Stars Influenced Menu” for 3-months.

To announce the new meals, behind the scenes was captured in Denny’s test kitchen fueling influencer social posts, ranging from energetic reels to static food assets – even inspiring Denny’s TV commercials.

To amplify, the meals were featured in the restaurant’s menu, and supported through on-premise signage, paid social and digital :15s online videos. The creators owned channels were leveraged to share finished menu items and visits to Denny’s ordering their own meals, inviting consumers to place orders themselves. Finally, Denny’s developed a merchandise collection inspired by the meals, made available on the brand’s online-store DinerDrip.com.

The campaign garnered a total of 198M+ social impressions.

In the first half of the campaign alone (February-September):

- Despite having already incredibly high levels of awareness, the campaign drove a 3% increase to hit 97%

- 10% increase in Favorability & Recommendation

- 8% increase in Consideration

- With Gen Z (18-24), we saw increases higher than campaign averages, with 5% lift in Awareness and 10% Consideration lift

- By September, the campaign had driven 1.6 million store visits after exposure to the influencers’ content, which translates into $39 million in revenue