Appleby vs Applebee's

The big idea is often right in front of you…if you’re watching. This was the case with the Thrive-owned North Carolina Applebee’s. Wake Forest’s basketball star was named Tyree Appleby. It was a match made in the neighborhood. We created a fictional campaign to change the spelling of Applebee’s to Appleby. We worked with the university and Tyree to successfully create a campaign to change Applebee's name. "Why Not Y." Starring in a social campaign, Tyree found himself trying various pursuits to single-handedly change Applebee's name to Appleby. Complete with videos of his stunts and a website to garner support (yynotapplebey.com), Tyree and his campaign spiked weekly sales by more than $10K per unit throughout Carolina in the weeks it was running.