THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

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From the 11th Annual Shorty Awards

LongHorn Steakhouse: Left-Handers Day

Finalist in GIFs

Objectives

Ask a left-handed person what it's like living in a world with right-handed people, and they'll quickly spout off all the ways they don't get recognized. That's why LongHorn Steakhouse wanted to cook up a bold campaign just for them. The program was designed to recognize Left-Handers Day on August 13 by making LongHorn's left-handed guests feel like it was their world and righties are just living in it.

In researching, the team discovered there were very few GIFs and Giphy stickers dedicated to left-handers. A search for high-fives, peace signs, fist bumps, and waving revealed, you guessed it, a bunch of right hands. Our approach was to right that wrong and make sure no lefties were left behind.

The result was a legendary, first-of-its-kind, left-handers experience in-restaurant, and a celebration online with special edition left-handed GIFs and Giphy Stickers just for lefties.

Strategy and Execution

To drive conversation, engagement, and earned coverage of our unique approach to this day, we created GIFs that were instantly shareable through Instagram Stories, Twitter, text, and Facebook. The goal of using GIFs and GIPHY stickers was to reach LongHorn's target audiences in a new and disruptive way via social and earned media.

A search for GIFs with high-fives, peace signs, fist bumps, hands waving reveals one thing—it's all right hands. After identifying the white space in left-handed content, we developed pieces that we knew people would be searching for on Left-Handers Day. Multiple key words and phrases pertaining to LongHorn Steakhouse were tagged in the stickers. Tags also included key words pertaining to Left-Handers Day and left-handers in general.

Fans could show their left-handed pride by using GIFs that played into left-handed phrases like "Left-Handers are always right" and "It's a Left-Handed Thing." Keeping a consistent brand theme across all social platforms was key to the implementation process. In addition to the left-handed phrases, GIFs included the LongHorn branded Moscow Mule mug, fist bumps, steaks and more.

Results

Media

Entrant Company / Organization Name

Fleishman Hillard, LongHorn Steakhouse

Link

Entry Credits