IHOP grabbed plenty of attention last week when it posted a cryptic note on social that it was flipping the “P” in its logo to a “b”—IHOb.
On Monday, we all found out that the campaign is temporary and designed to draw attention to the fact that IHOP—International House of Pancakes—isn’t only a place for breakfast but that it also serves lunch and dinner. To emphasize the point it announced it is adding the Big Brunch Burger topped with fried egg, potato and bacon to its menu along with six other new steakburger offerings.
Today, @IHOb was posting notes like: Dear Internet, we abbreciate your batience. Now let’s see who guessed right. B-hold!!!!! #IHOb
The president of IHOP, Darren Rebelez, told CNNMoney that it is taking its burgers as seriously as its pancakes.
There was plenty of speculation from IHOP’s legions of fans about what the “b” stood for with suggestions like bacon or Bill or breakdancing. Even some opportunistic brands jumped in like this post from Chiquita bananas:
pancakes, syrup, French toast, crepes…We LOVE where you’re going with this @IHOP 
#InternationalHouseofBananas #IHOB
Today, IHOP revealed the meaning of IHOb in a YouTube video:
The campaign did its job. The news created plenty of buzz for the company and its new burger offerings.
“Since the launch of the teaser campaign on June 4, the IHOb push has been featured in more than 15,000 earned media stories. The total potential reach of social media conversation has hit 3.4 billion people, with 1.2 million tweets,” PR Week reported.
Network
