This may make me a fat kid…but I love Free iHop Pancake Day!!
By
February 23, 2010
Join IHOP to celebrate National Pancake Day on Tuesday, February 23, 2010. From 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., we’ll give you one free short stack (three) of our famous buttermilk pancakes.* All we ask is that you consider making a donation to support local children’s hospitals through Children’s Miracle Network, or other local charities.
Free pancakes and a chance to help people… sounds great to me! Not only do I find what iHop is doing for the Children’s Miracle Network amazing (they are raising so much money!) but I also love how I have only seen this day promoted on Facebook and Twitter. And while I have found out that iHop runs some ads to promote Free Pancake Day, I feel that most of the awareness from (at least for my age segment) was made through Facebook fan pages, groups, and tags via Twitter. I think iHop has found a great way to make their social media endeavors virtuous, and it looks like it really pays off.
3 Comments
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:15 pm
I love that IHOP does this too! I do think they should promote it more though because I had no idea they were doing it until I saw your post. I feel like there is no way that you could go to IHOP, know you are eating for free, and not donate because it is for such a good cause. IHOP could easily turn down something like this knowing that they may or may not receive any type of profit. Clearly they are more concerned with helping out the Children’s Miracle Network, which in my opinion, really makes them gain brand value and image. I also read that more than 1400 IHOP restaurants are participating which is amazing! I also think it’s important to note that they started this in 2006 and each year their total revenue from National Pancake Day has gradually increased which means more money for Children’s Miracle Network. YAY IHOP!
February 24th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
I really like this idea as well! Is this the first free IHOP day where they have been asking for charitable donations? If so, I think it’s about time and a great idea.
If they do this all across America I think that the $5,000,000 goal would definitely be attainable. As long as people aren’t being too stingy..
Unfortunately, I just saw this post today…so i didn’t get any free pancakes..but i’ll be ready for it next year! And maybe Denny’s will follow suit on their free grand slam days by contributing to charity.
April 21st, 2010 at 11:19 am
I do think this is the first year where, in their ads, they are asking for a charitable donation. Like you said though, Liz, I worried that people would be too stingy and just eat the free pancakes. However, I did a little research and found that IHOP raised $5.35 million dollars to date from the past 5 years of doing Free Pancake Day. And since they were at around 4 million before this year, I think they must of done really well!