Denny’s Corp. is collaborating with TikTok creators to produce a dozen menu items that started rolling out this week.
The Spartanburg, S.C. family-dining brand said the first three of the 12 items produced with users of the social platform were introduced Thursday and will be available through June 21 in the restaurants as well as online at through the smartphone app.
The company said the first six influencers worked with Denny's culinary team during the meal-development process. The first wave includes Get That Cookie Dough Pancakes with Jenny Solares (@es_jenny_solares ) and The EnkyBoys (@EnkyBoys ), a Jala-Bac Burger with Jonathan Chavez (@PaqJonathan69 ) and Elise Osafo (@ElTheEgg ) and Clearly Very Fruity Pancakes with Elliott Norris (@CallMeBelly ) and Matt Taylor (@Mattheperson ).
In January, quick-service burger giant McDonald’s Corp. unveiled “menu hacks” that used existing products that social-media influences used in creative ways.
“We didn't want to just work with this diverse group of social stars to 'hack the menu,’” said John Dillon, Denny’s chief brand officer, in a statement Thursday. “Instead, we wanted to take it to a new level and tap into their creative personalities to create distinctly new menu items that are bursting with bold flavors.”
The first Social Stars Influenced Menu is the first phase of Denny's new “Open for Anything” brand campaign, the company said. The campaign was featured on YouTube as well.
"Our Social Stars Influenced Menu shows how we are Open for Anything and links to our decades-long heritage of being open and welcoming of people from all backgrounds and personalizing our meals to meet their culinary preferences," said Dillon.
Dillon said those individual include the father and son duo called “the Enky Boy” who share the love of family through singing and playing together and first-year law school student ElTheEgg, who juggles being a student with managing a scholarship fund and working.
Customers can get more information about the Open for Anything campaign and upcoming launches at www.dennys.com/openforanything.
For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 29, Denny’s net income increased to $43.5 million, or 67 cents a share, from $2.4 million, or four cents a share, in the same period of 2020. Revenue in the quarter rose to $107.6 million from $80.1 million in the prior-year period.
Domestic same-store sales were up 0.7% from the pre-pandemic 2019 quarter, including a 0.4% increase at domestic franchised restaurants and a 5.1% increase at company-owned restaurants. and up 49% from the 2020 period.
As of Dec. 29, Denny's had 1,640 franchised, licensed and company restaurants around the world.
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