How Denny’s Became a Weirdly Successful Content Marketer
Content marketing broadcasting
This Fast Company article about Denny's off-beat content marketing campaign got me thinking. About the power of brand personality, the importance of taking creative risks, and about two eggs over easy, hash browns, rye toast and a side of bacon. Make that Applewood smoked bacon. (Caution: Reading and writing before breakfast may lead to obsessive tendencies.)
But seriously, this is a smart, targeted marketing strategy that's capturing a whole new audience by speaking their language, while still keeping it real with its loyal, long-time customers. Denny’s is serving up fun and engaging material across multiple channels and formats. There are retro Atari video games featuring odd combos of Denny's items (like hash browns) with Atari game elements (like asteroids) resulting in titles like "Hashteroids" (get it?). Although I'm far from the target audience, I did get a kick out of the web series Always Open with Jason Bateman, Sarah Silverman and Will Arnett dishing with celebrities in a Denny's booth.
All this talk about food and content also reminded me of one of my favorite content marketing examples of all time: The Waffle Shop (not to be confused with Waffle House, which reminds me of Jim Gaffigan).
Waffles With a Side of Content (& Storytelling)
A rooftop storytelling billboard, a TV production studio, live music. What's not to love? This is one of my favorite examples ever. So I was happy to see it as the #1 pick in the Content Marketing Institute's compilation of 100 Content Marketing Examples last year. The story of The Waffle Shop, an independent Pittsburgh restaurant with a wildly creative approach to content marketing, was originally featured in: What if You Sold Waffles with a Side of Content? by Andrew Davis.
I'm off to make some breakfast so will leave you with this excerpt: "The Waffle Shop was a neighborhood restaurant that produced and broadcast a live-streaming talk show with its customers and operated a changeable storytelling billboard on its roof. [It} was a public lab that brought together people from all walks of life to engage in dialogue, experimentation and the co-production of culture. [It] functioned as an eatery, a TV production studio, a social catalyst, and a business.
"What’s interesting about [this] experiment is that they leverage a content-centric approach as the centerpiece of their business — it’s not a marketing project or a blog; in fact, the content is one of their products."