---
title: "NRN: Denny’s CMO Reveals Plan to Age Down Brand"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/ac052550-e7ef-4870-8d44-615f2912f48e
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/nrn-dennys-cmo-reveals-plan-to-age-down-brand-2706221
category: "Restaurants"
industry: "Restaurants"
topics: ["People"]
published: 2018-04-09T16:11:30.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T03:03:03.477Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/3414ba34b3b594b558bcbc6d686149428552.jpg
---

# NRN: Denny’s CMO Reveals Plan to Age Down Brand

**TL;DR:** Denny's CEO John Dillon revealed the chain's plan to rebrand and appeal to millennial consumers through store remodels and a new digital marketing strategy. The brand has partnered with Lucasfilm and other companies like Hulu and Amazon to achieve this goal.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2018-04-09. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/nrn-dennys-cmo-reveals-plan-to-age-down-brand-2706221).*

## Story

On Friday, Nation’s Restaurant News published an interview with Denny’s CEO John Dillon , who discussed the family-dining chain’s plans to adjust their branding to appeal to millennial consumers. The rebranding, stages of which are already being implemented throughout the system, includes store remodels and a new digital marketing strategy.

As part of the brand’s new marketing strategy, Denny’s has revealed a cross-promotional partnership with Lucasfilm surrounding the new Star Wars franchise entry, “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” The partnership includes collaboration with a number of other brands from a range of sectors, including Hulu, Pandora and Amazon.

“We’re really looking to up our game and appeal to a different generation of buyers,” said Dillon in the interview. “The beauty of a franchise like Star Wars, it appeals to people like me, so Gen X. It appeals to Baby Boomers, Gen Z and millennials. As a family diner, it made a ton of sense for us. [These partnerships] have started to age down the brand, which is one of our objectives.”

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Restaurants (sector)
- Nation's Restaurant News (publication)
- marketing strategy (topic)
- Amazon (company)
- Gen Z (person)
- multi-unit franchisees (topic)
- Denny's (company)
- John Dillon (person)
- brand rebranding (topic)
- Hulu (company)
- cross-promotional partnership (topic)

---
Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/nrn-dennys-cmo-reveals-plan-to-age-down-brand-2706221). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/ac052550-e7ef-4870-8d44-615f2912f48e).