Nathan's Famous Longest line of hotdogs

The Results

Media Reach:
70M+ impressions
Online Coverage:
Reuters Online, CBS Local New York, Meat and Poultry Online and more
Facebook Live Broadcast:
400,000+ views and 20,000+ user interactions

The Brief

Nathan’s Famous is no stranger to crowd-roaring events — or to breaking records.  After its successful Memorial Day event featuring the record attempt for Most people taking selfies, Nathan’s Famous enlisted Guinness World Records™ again to celebrate its 100th anniversary.
Coinciding with Labor Day weekend — a significant holiday for Nathan’s Famous given its hallmark affiliation with grilling — the anniversary celebration leveraged the excitement
of record breaking and the lure of its iconic hot dog. 

The Solution

The Record: Spelling out “100” to mark its anniversary, Nathan’s Famous and agency partner, Breaking Limits, lined up a record-breaking 1,916 hot dogs while a salivating crowd looked on—including hot dog-eating champion, Joey Chestnut. Guinness World Records adjudicators measured and declared the record broken for the Longest line of hot dogs.
 
Event Day Amplification: A takeover of Grand Central Terminal set the stage as fans relished free samples from the successful attempt. To inspire worldwide participation, Nathan’s Famous employed the Guinness World Records name; on-site, fans ”snapped” the scene using a custom Snapchat filter while online viewers engaged with a Facebook Live broadcast to get in on the action. 
 
Post Attempt Engagement: By leveraging the reach of Guinness World Records, Facebook engagement nearly doubled. To this day, Nathan’s Famous continues to do “throwbacks” to commemorate the event across its channels.
 

Nathan’s already stands out in the minds of consumers as the world’s leading premium hot dog. Setting another hot dog world record is the perfect way to kick off the Labor Day grilling weekend on our anniversary year.

— Scott Harvey, Executive Vice President of Nathan’s Famous