How GIPHY & Hardee’s Made the Holiday Season More Delicious with The Rizzler

To celebrate the relaunch of the Hardee’s limited-time, seasonal Cinnamon ‘N Raisin biscuits, GIPHY was tapped by the iconic American quick-service restaurant to bring a bit more rizz and festive flavor to the holiday season.

With the help of internet sensation and Gen Alpha icon The Rizzler, GIPHY leveraged existing content from a Hardee’s commercial to create social-first assets featuring expressive, shareable GIFs and stickers.

The Feed Your Happy campaign drove conversation between Hardee’s core fanbase and attracted new customers during one of the most joyful times of the year.

The Christmas Eve tentpole takeover placed The Rizzler’s larger-than-life personality on full display, reaching over 17M impressions in the first 24 hours.

To further amplify the Hardee’s campaign, GIPHY promoted GIFs in go-to seasonal searches such as “Dear Santa,” and ’tis the season,” in addition to popular food keywords like “delicious” and “yum.”

“The holiday season is one of the most popular times of the year to share a GIF, and by partnering with Hardee’s, we were able to infuse the season with some much-needed rizz for even more sharing potential,” said Steve McKnight, Managing Director of GIPHY Ads. “This Rizzler holiday campaign authentically engaged both brands’ core fanbase, encouraging them to spread holiday cheer.”

“Our Hardee’s Rizzmas GIPHY campaign created a new way for fans to bring the brand into their holiday conversations,” said a representative for Hardee’s. “GIPHY enabled us to insert Hardee’s into moments people were already sharing, while driving strong engagement, cultural relevance, and genuine enthusiasm for the campaign.”

Over 75% of respondents in a Nielsen Brand Study highly rated the Hardee’s branded GIFs and indicated a strong intent to share. Featuring The Rizzler in this cheeky holiday moment allowed Hardee’s to outperform standard CPG-food benchmarks across all engagement metrics, especially among males aged 18 to 24.

This campaign demonstrated that tapping into buzzy internet sensations and timely social content can drive impactful results, attract new audiences, and build awareness around a brand’s iconic offerings.

Even without The Rizzler, you can still anticipate an increase in your brand’s ROI with GIPHY Ads — the perfect integration for any occasion! Check out ads.giphy.com to maximize reach and amplify your brand.