Applebee's has been a quiet champion of Veteran's Day for several years. Ever since one franchisee took it upon himself to offer a token of thanks by giving free meals to Vets the thank you has been adopted nationwide by the chain. Now, each year Applebee's gives away over 2 million free meals annually.
To help bring this feeling of gratitude beyond a free offer, we wanted to champion Applebee's as the destination to display our nation's thankfulness, all while creating a bit of friendly competition between the neighborhoods from state to state.
The campaign included a range of integrated media from broadcast and media partners, such as CMT, all the way down to an Applebee's employee focused Tumblr.
The experience had mirrored online hubs on both Applebees.com and Facebook . allowing for a greater number of submissions and sharing.
By creating a streamlined destination and simple mechanism to submit, we gave everyone off all levels of digital expertise a way to upload a few words of thanks, view what others had shared and help their own neighborhood become the most thankful in the nation.
