Marketing in the news: Applebee’s taps NFL star as undercover server to promote new burger

As a current Applebees employee, I thought this ad was very interesting. I would not have expected Applebees to partner up with Team Whistle and with NFL players to market their company. I personally liked the ad because of the fun way Brandon was able to interact with the customers, and his fellow servers. I have been at Applebees for a year and can say our servers can somewhat put out this energy at our local Corvallis Applebees.

This is definitely a unique experience for these customers, to see a NFL player they admire or like in such a common situation. This catches them off guard and makes them question who Brandon is at first and when they realize it they get excited and happy to be there. This also catches the viewer's attention because Brandon seems to love the 'whole lotta of bacon burger' which makes customers more interested in Applebees.

The customer connection with the employee Brandon is also very intriguing because in my opinion when I go to a restaurant I want to feel like I know the servers and feel relaxed because I feel welcomed by friends. Brandon captures just that, he is charismatic, fun, silly, still a little serious, and that helps to make a connection with the customers. Making them want to come to an Applebees to get just that kind of hospitality and fun.

In this advertisement it looks like the product, the 'whole lotta bacon burger' is a success. Since these people recognize Brandon even if they can’t put their finger on who he really is, they still trust his judgment. So when Brandon suggests the 'whole lotta bacon burger' and says how much he likes it they take his word for it. It also helps that the way he and his co-worker describe the burger makes it very appetizing.

I do think this advertisement was a good idea, but I don’t think it was totally executed in the right way. The ad is mostly focused on Brandon and the hospitality side of things, not the product. The 'whole lotta bacon burger'. There is not much of a description of what is actually on the burger, you know there is bacon and bacon sauce, but what is that sauce made of? How much bacon is really on the burger? It would have been better to go on to say what the details of the burger are such as. "This burger comes with Bacon inside the patty, American Cheese, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, and Pickle. Topped with the Bacon Sauce made from a combination of the Sweet Asian Chili Sauce and Mayo and 3 strips of Bacon on top of that!" This would have made the product shine more and actually be in the spotlight instead of Brandon. I also think some of his silliness was unprofessional and kinda out of context for what the goal was. Maybe as an added fun part I would have made a clip of him throwing the burger and showing the inside of the burger while it fly's above the football field to give more interest to the viewers of what the burger is an when Applebees will be having this burger.

URL: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/applebees-team-whistle-undercover-athlete-youtube-series/712964/