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But when Nashville, Tenn.-based O'Charley's started evaluating what made it stand out from the better-known national brands like Ruby Tuesday and Applebee's, it found that everything started with its signature dinner rolls, literally and figuratively. With its longtime ad agency, Nashville-based The Buntin Group, the casual-dining chain used this information to launch its newest branding campaign, designed to energize both employees and customers about the brand.

“There was this sea of sameness in casual-dining ads,” says Dawn Boulanger, vice president of marketing for the chain, which has 240 units throughout the South and Midwest. “There was not a lot of differentiation with these ads. They all ended with a [food as] hero shot. We needed to be creative.”

The creativity also had to take place on the business end of the project to make the most of O'Charley's marketing budget, which, at an estimated $10 million, is smaller than its national competitors.

O'Charley's used much of the second half of last year to research possible hooks for the new campaign, which launched in January. “We had focus groups, and it was amazing to hear people talk about the rolls,” Boulanger says. “They had an emotional connection to the rolls.”

Employees as well as customers had this kind of reaction to the rolls, which the company describes as “unsliceably soft.” The rolls are a crucial part of the O'Charley's experience: Last year the chain served more than 129 million rolls, going through 3,000 pounds of butter a day to do so.

“If the rolls are great, it sets the stage for the rest of the meal,” Boulanger explains. “People crave them and they want to go eat them. There is craveability there.”

Working off of that, O'Charley's and The Buntin Group created three initial television spots, which Boulanger says are “humorous, but do not take us off path. Everything we are trying do in stimulating traffic and building awareness is based on our great quality food.”

The spots feature people in embarrassing or awkward fictional situations, with the O'Charley's rolls providing levity and distraction. The ads have aired on a cross-section of programming and dayparts, ranging from prime-time cable to local news, geared toward a demographic between 25 and 54 years old.

To confirm and reinforce that the rolls were the right approach, management went on an eight-city tour before the ads hit the airwaves, showing the spots to employees and franchisees and reviewing the rules for serving rolls, such as how many to serve per guest and when to refill bread baskets.

O'Charley's had ambitious goals for the campaign. While it did not want to reposition the chain, it did want to build brand awareness for the concept, increase trial and frequency in a tough economy, and, of course, increase same-store sales, Boulanger says.

While O'Charley's did not include radio and other traditional media with this branding effort, it did not stick exclusively to television. The company also created a dedicated microsite, www.therolls.com. The site provides lore about the rolls, internal training videos for restaurant servers, quizzes, customer contests and links to the newly redesigned O'Charley's Web site.

The microsite includes an “Only Getting Better” theme. “The rolls signify the beginning of a great experience. Only goodness will follow,” says Jeffrey Buntin Jr., president and CEO of the Buntin Group, which has been O'Charley's ad agency for more than a decade. “People said, 'If my rolls are this good, the rest of the meal will be good.'”

“We are late to the game on some of these things. But we wanted to do something cool and different and drive people to the [main] Web site and ultimately into the restaurant,” Boulanger says.

“Every client and agency is trying to figure what new media they should do,” adds Buntin. “But there is a difference between what you can do and what you should do.”

The microsite was clearly something O'Charley's was supposed to do as part of the campaign. Web traffic has increased from 200 hits per day to 12,000 when the ads are on the air, Boulanger reports.

O'Charley's plans to film two more 30-second spots this year (with edited 10-second versions to be used as needed) and expects that the campaign will be a two-year effort. Buntin thinks the rolls have continued potential because, “they are handed from a real person to a real person. That helps with the emotional commitment.”

However, the rolls will not become a character: Employees will not dress in roll costumes. The company wants to have fun but also wants to focus on the real menu item.

“We are in a state today where we want to be a little bit more dynamic and a bit more fun,” Buntin says looking toward the rolls' future. “We do not always have to take ourselves so seriously.”