Applebee's O-M-Cheese Burger shows how a restaurant can turn a successful item into a repeatable platform. The $11.99 bacon cheeseburger is cut in half and dipped into a skillet of queso, and it sits within the chain's 2 for $25 value offer. Within months of launch, it became Applebee's most-ordered burger.
Applebee's leadership said content featuring the burger generated more than 9 billion impressions, reached 96 million people on social media and produced nearly 80 times more organic views than traditional campaigns. The chain treated that response as evidence for a broader O-M-Cheese platform, combining familiar menu items with queso and melted cheese.
The follow-up O-M-Cheese-adilla Burger builds on the existing Quesadilla Burger with bacon and additional cheese while preserving the same theatrical experience. The idea adds surprise to a familiar product without abandoning value or operational feasibility. Applebee's evaluates concepts through desirability, value and feasibility.
Cutting a burger and dipping it into cheese explains the product while producing a social-ready visual. The experience generates its own creative asset. Like Domino's Went Straight at the Big Mac and Whopper — “Pizza Can't. The Domino Can.”, restaurant marketing becomes stronger when a menu difference can be demonstrated in one memorable scene.
To extend a hit item, preserve the action customers remember. For Applebee's, that action is the cheese dip. New menu variants can change ingredients or partners while repeating the experience, building recognition without making every launch identical.
It combined a familiar burger, a theatrical cheese-dipping experience, value pricing and a visual designed to travel well on social media.
Keep the core action or experience customers remember, then vary ingredients and partnerships around that repeatable idea.
To apply what you just read to your own site, start with a free audit of where things are now.
A strategist replies within 24 hours on business days.
Korean seafood platform Ineogyoju Haejeokdan began as a blog posting fish market prices and now earns ₩57 billion a year. Its content-led growth strategy: free information, revenue from distribution.
Five Guys' first Korean store drew six-hour lines. Its brand consistency strategy skipped localization: same foil, same peanuts, a year sourcing local potatoes and twice-weekly secret shoppers.
After a 6% revenue drop and 729 closures in 2025, Subway is betting on core customer marketing. CMO Jeff Klein explains 'Feed Your SUBconscious,' modular creative and why Sweetgreen isn't the rival.