We’re serving up the NFL this season! - Applebee's | Clapboard Ad Archive

Applebee’s turns up the volume on seasonal relevance in its 2024 campaign We’re serving up the NFL this season!, rallying football fans nationwide with a limited-time offer that puts America’s Favorite Boneless Wings on the table for just 50¢ each—an aggressive play for share of both voice and stomach in the highly competitive Food & Drink market. Developed in partnership with Grey New York, the campaign anchors the brand as a central player in the rituals of game day, inviting customers to feed their watch parties via To-Go or assemble in-restaurant to soak up the collective excitement, and in a category brimming with competitors staking their identity on sports or communal dining, this dual-channel approach broadens Applebee’s reach beyond its archetypal neighborhood grill positioning. The core creative engine—what Clapboard’s taxonomy would classify as FORMAT#8—Ongoing Characters or Celebrities—deploys NFL personalities Brock Purdy, Saquon Barkley, and Head Coach Dan Campbell in a narrative device that casts them as Applebee’s rookie recruits, fusing celebrity energy with a playful culinary metaphor in the campaign’s filmic centerpiece Pre-Seasoning. This strategy does more than chase star power: by positioning these established sports figures as part of an Applebee’s “team,” the campaign harnesses real fan anticipation for football season, aligning the brand with culturally vivid moments and providing ready-made storylines that extend engagement far beyond traditional product-driven messaging. Notably, the offer itself—boneless wings at 50¢ each—lands as the focal point of value, channeled through both at-home and in-store consumption, a relevant move in a moment where flexibility and convenience are as prized as affordability for food-service consumers. With over 2.3 million views on YouTube, the campaign’s reach underscores the credibility of this approach, signaling that the fusion of sports narratives and food-driven promotions remains a potent formula for spiking both attention and transaction in the US casual dining sector. The campaign earns 63/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. As the industry looks to turn seasonal moments into cultural events, this work demonstrates how the right blend of celebrity integration and value-driven creativity can actively reframe brand participation in America’s enduring sports rituals.