Draped with more than 28,000 lights, the Applebee’s in Roseville, MI shines out as a beacon of the season among local businesses… and brings in holiday traffic as well.

Trey Crim, Applebee’s Area Director in Michigan, issued a holiday challenge for his general managers: Decorate their Applebee’s restaurants more than they ever had before. “I want the class of Martha Stewart combined with the abundance of Clark Griswold,” Crim said.

Jason Heenan, GM of the Roseville, MI Applebee’s, jumped at the challenge, getting his bright idea from the neighborhoods his Applebee’s serves. In these neighborhoods, the homes were decorated mostly with holiday lights, an approach that would also differentiate the Roseville Applebee’s from nearby competitors.

Although Jason’s only previous decorating experience had been stringing lights on his dog Axel, he and another team member spent 3 days during Thanksgiving week decorating the Applebee’s with 94 boxes of 300 lights.

The festively festooned restaurant has received a lot of positive feedback from the neighborhood and guests – including new guests who said that this was the first time they had noticed the Applebee’s on the busy commercial strip. Heenan says that the restaurant traffic growth has been positive for the month.

“These lights really set us apart from our competition on this road,” confirmed Crim,

The lights on the outside and the inside of the Applebee’s also create a merry atmosphere for guests and team members. “It’s difficult to be in a bad mood inside the restaurant,” said Heenan.

When Rich Westcot, general manager, St. John’s Applebee’s, first saw the Applebee’s Wall of Honor poster saluting neighborhood heroes for Veterans Day, he was moved by the powerful message it was sending to veterans and active duty military. But he also felt concerned. “The poster was too important a statement for it just to wind up in a closet somewhere after Veterans Day.” Then the solution came to him: “Let’s turn it into a something lasting that everyone can get behind.”

Westcot decided to turn the poster into a giant holiday greeting of appreciation for a neighborhood soldier serving overseas. The local VFW gave Westcot the name of Sergeant First Class Jimmy Garcia, whose service in Afghanistan had taken him far from his neighborhood in Michigan.

Westcot and his team asked their Applebee’s guests to sign the Wall of Honor poster with greetings to their neighborhood active duty serviceman. They collected hundreds of heartfelt notes and signatures for SFC Garcia including a hand print of an infant and a message from a 93-year-old pre-WWII vet (pictured).

Westcot sent the poster to SFC Garcia with the message: “This is from your hometown area wishing you a happy holidays and come home safe.”

Soon after, the St. John’s Applebee’s team received this thank you note from SFC Garcia:

I was surprised and touched to receive your Poster. It is the first time I have been away from family during the holidays and it made me feel closer to home. It was so large it didn’t fit on the wall of my room; we posted it in the office/mess hall where it could be viewed by everyone. It was a big hit, and the envy of our camp. We had visitors from over the entire Country who came to see the Poster when they were billeted here because they had gotten the rumor of the pride Michigan folk have for our troops overseas.

It has gotten to be a sign of good luck for all of us to touch the poster before going out on mission. I have to tell you too that it was the first time I have seen our camp commander well-up with tears of pride as he read many of the special notes.

You can’t be told enough how much this has meant to me and all the troops here. You and your company should be awarded civilian medals of Honor for what you have done for the morale of all of us.

SFC Jimmy Garcia

The St. John’s Applebee’s also created a second banner with a timeline for veterans to note when they went into service. The timeline is on tour of the local VFWs.

On Veterans Day, the Applebee’s team set up a community table by putting three tables together, so that veterans and active duty military could sit together and share if they wanted to. Westcot notes that two veterans who hadn’t seen each other in 20 years reconnected on Veterans Day. Here’s hoping that soon SFC Garcia will be able to receive his neighborhood’s appreciation in person at the St. John’s Applebee’s.

A winning addition to the Applebee’s football season strategy, the new Yard Cards offer guests the opportunity to be instant winners of NFL gear and rack up yards (points) to purchase NFL merchandise.

In partnership with MillersCoors, the new Yard Card promotion is positioned to drive beer sales and guest visits at Applebee’s this football season.

How Yard Cards Work to Build Frequency

• A Yard Card is provided to each guest who purchases a Coors Light, or upon request
• Each guest can get one Yard Card per day
• Guests set up an account and start accruing yards by submitting their card’s unique game code on a special promotional website or via mobile texting
• Yards are randomly awarded with each card entry to encourage return visits to Applebee’s to watch the game and get more yards
• Yards accrued can be used to purchase authentic NFL gear at NFLshop.com

Key Element of Football Program

“The Yard Card promotion is an innovative extension of our great football programming this season,” according to Brian Masilionis, manager, Beverage and Brand Marketing. “This program is just another way to link Applebee’s with America’s love for football and the response from restaurants has been positive with more than 1,200 restaurants picking up the program.”

The Yard Card idea came out of the Beverage Innovation Summit that Applebee’s held with its beverage vendors. Key vendors were invited to submit ideas based on our beverage strategy to increase beer sales and frequency of visits during football season. After the idea was proposed, Applebee’s and MillerCoors partnered effectively for an extraordinary fast turnaround, according to Masilionis. “MillerCoors proposed this idea in June and we had it implemented in restaurants by September.”

The Yard Card promotion is available Sept.2, 2010 through Feb. 6, 2011.