After nearly a decade with Grey, Applebee’s is bringing its creative account back to the Midwest.
The casual-dining chain has named BBDO Chicago its new creative agency, handing the Omnicom shop a major national assignment as Applebee’s looks to restore growth and make its longtime “neighborhood” positioning more relevant to today’s diners.
The move has a bit of agency-history symmetry. Before Applebee’s selected Grey in 2017, the business had been handled by Barkley, the Kansas City-based agency now known as BarkleyOKRP. Grey took over the North American account following a review that year, with its New York and Los Angeles offices leading the work.
Now the account is heading back to the region – this time to Chicago.
BBDO Chicago won the business following a review launched by Applebee’s Chief Marketing Officer Michelle Chin. The agency is expected to begin work immediately, with its first campaign slated for early next year.
The brief is about more than pushing value offers. Applebee’s wants BBDO Chicago to help strengthen the experience of going to the restaurant itself – distinctive food and drinks, occasions worth leaving the house for, and the idea that Applebee’s can still function as a real neighborhood gathering place.
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“People are looking for value, but we also recognize that value these days and a great meal are table stakes, and so we need to get to this emotional connection,” Chin said.
That makes the assignment particularly interesting for a Chicago agency. Applebee’s has built its brand around the language of community for decades, and BBDO Chicago is now being asked to reinterpret that idea for a generation that increasingly lives, works and socializes through screens.
For Josh Gross, chief creative officer of BBDO Chicago, the opportunity is rooted in that familiarity.
“It’s not every day you get to work with a brand that’s truly woven into the culture of America,” Gross said. “For many of us, Applebee’s isn’t just a restaurant, it’s a place where memories are made, celebrations are had, and neighborhoods of all sorts come together.”
Applebee’s domestic same-restaurant sales fell 1.8% in the quarter ended June 28, while several major casual-dining competitors posted gains over roughly comparable periods. The chain’s U.S. systemwide sales also declined 0.8% to nearly $4.1 billion in 2025, according to Technomic.
That adds real weight behind the new agency relationship.
The brand plans to build campaigns around a single central story that can stretch across TV, social, digital, and loyalty, rather than creating separate ideas channel by channel.
Applebee’s continues to work with Initiative for paid media and Current Global for public relations.
So for the first time since the pre-Grey era, Applebee’s creative future is once again being shaped by a Midwest agency.
Only this time, the neighborhood is Chicago.
