IHOP today revealed Pereira O’Dell as its new creative agency, along with the shop's first campaign for the chain, “Let’s Put a Smile on Your Plate.” 

The campaign kicks off a rebranding effort that takes its inspiration from the restaurant chain’s “funny-face” pancakes while addressing brand-building opportunities revealed in a study of its restaurants, franchisees, customers and employees.

A 60-second “manifesto” spot opens with a scene from the IHOP kitchen as pancake batter is poured onto a gleaming griddle—a “behind the curtain” scene IHOP had rarely presented in its marketing, said Kieran Donahue, IHOP's chief marketing officer.

The ad continues with moments “between the bites,” in the kitchen, the restaurant and in consumers’ homes. Tying it all together is a modern recording of “When You’re Smiling (the Whole World Smiles With You),” a song made famous almost a century ago by Louis Armstrong and recorded for the campaign by music partner Beacon Street Music. The only spoken words come when a voiceover at the end of the commercial recites the new tagline: “At IHOP, we don’t just put food on your plate. We put a smile on your plate.”

“We didn’t want to say too much,” said Rob Lambrechts, Pereira O’Dell's chief creative officer. “We wanted people to feel it.”

'True north research'

Donahue, who joined IHOP in 2021 after a long career in the hospitality industry, has already done much to change the brand's trajectory. She ordered deep research into the IHOP brand and its attributes, revealing that the chain had often failed to take credit for the reasons customers admired it, including its food quality and preparation standards, and its versatility as a gathering place for friends and family from breakfast to late night. 

Despite a strong 2021, IHOP's comparable sales still trail pre-pandemic levels.

The chain's “true north research,” as Donahue called it, was presented to a range of creative advertising agencies during a review overseen by MediaLink that began in December. Incumbent creative partner Droga5, which had held the IHOP account for four years, chose not to defend. Pereira O’Dell won convincingly behind a single idea.

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“I’ve done a lot of RFPs and been presented to by a lot of agencies, and this is the first time in my long career in marketing that I’ve been in a pitch where the final pitch had just one campaign. Not two—one,” Donahue said. “POD had such conviction in this campaign, and they were so right on. They hit the heart of everything that is IHOP, and they brought it to life.”

Pereira O’Dell executives said that a tight deadline loaned urgency to their work, while clarity from IHOP on what the brand was looking for gave it direction. IHOP’s brief was simple and clear: “How do you bring the recipe for joy to life?”

“We came in to win the pitch, but also win the pitch and produce the idea, because we knew what we had was right for them,” Natalie Nymark, president of Pereira O’Dell’s West region said. “We also knew we had very little time to get to market so we knew we had to be ready to go.”

Making the cash registers ring

Pereira O’Dell seized on the smile long used in the company’s logo—and placed onto its pancakes with whipped cream and chocolate chips—to highlight those elements that the brand had once taken for granted.

“The first time we got together with Kieran and her team she had a super clear vision of what the path forward was and that's always inspiring for us. We knew the whole time it was about that smile, 100%,” said Lambrechts. “When you ask what is the end of a recipe for joy? It’s a smile. It’s food that makes you happy. And most of the time you go to IHOP, you're with other people you love—your friends and family—and the interactions you have with them, and the IHOP staff, are usually happy. And when you put all that together the natural result is a smile.”

The campaign, which hits linear and OTT television beginning April 11, joins a newly launched loyalty rewards program intended to generate repeat business for the Dine Brands chain and attract new customers while playing off the crypto coin craze. Donahue, who is fond of saying the goal of marketing “is to make the cash registers ring,” noted the new spot—as well as the loyalty program dubbed the International Bank of Pancakes that figures in the ads—feature “cultural moments but also tactical ones.”

These efforts are helping 64-year-old IHOP chart a new growth plan intended to make the brand appear “wherever people are making decisions about what they want to eat when they’re hungry,” said Donahue.

The restaurant is broadening the places it looks to advertise as a response to the increasingly digital lives of its customers. “We can't just be on television, we’ve got to be on TikTok and on Hulu—we need to be where the guests are. Wherever people are making decisions about what they want to eat when they’re hungry, I want IHOP to show up there,” she said. “Making the cash register ring is all about being current, and looking at culture and what the business needs. That's my job. My job is to make sure we get people into our restaurants.”

The chain is making a “significant” increase in marketing spending this quarter, although Donahue declined to cite specific figures.