Viral Marketing: What Your Business Can Learn from IHOB

You might not have agreed with IHOP becoming IHOB, and indeed the breakfast chain is remaining IHOP, but chances are that you noticed the change. IHOP is now top-of-mind due to their unique viral marketing campaign.

A Mysterious, Cryptic Rollout

Using social media platforms to draw interest and increase brand engagement is nothing new, but IHOP used its social media outlets to build interest in and mystery around its name change.

The basic concept behind viral marketing is the spread of brand recognition from person to person, as you would spread a cold virus. An IHOP customer sees a strange tweet by the company Twitter handle, they retweet it, re-post it on other social media platforms, and on it goes. The customers are essentially doing the work of the advertising team by spreading the ‘news’ to more and more people until most people with Internet access in the US know about it.

When IHOP made its announcement, it engaged users by asking them to predict what the new ‘B’ would stand for in the name. With Twitter users pouring in with responses, views of IHOP logo and the mystery surrounding its new ‘B’ only grew.

Viral Marketing with a Purpose

In the end, only a few, highly-publicized IHOPs changed their signs out front. There were no menu subtractions, only the clear branding message that IHOP is re-focusing on its lunch and dinner offerings and adding several new burger items to the menu.

I bet the first thing that you thought about IHOP before this viral marketing campaign was breakfast, specifically pancakes. But now, your perception of the brand, IHOP or IHOB, is different. It has expanded to include lunch and dinner in the IHOP discussion. IHOP has successfully altered its perception in a positive way, and you don’t even have to be a follower of IHOP on Twitter to know that the restaurant offers new burgers for lunch and dinner now.

What Have We Learned?

We learned that viral marketing can shift brand perception quickly when done the right way. There is no one way to spread brand awareness and shift perception using viral methods, but if you’re creative, create engaging and fun online content, and respond to your audience, you might not break the Internet, but you can create a successful viral marketing campaign. To see how this can work in real-time for your brand, contact Red Rocket Web Specialists.