Red Lobster
Background: With over 650 locations, Red Lobster is the leader in the casual dining seafood category. The brand has traditionally been built through the use of national television advertising and highly-recognized signature promotions, supported heavily by TV on the front-end and then supplemented by radio to keep store counts high during the back-half of the promotion. Over time, radio’s ability to effectively supplement television as a traffic-driving medium was questioned. When ROI objectives began to fail, the chain sought an effective alternative strategy for its “Endless Shrimp” promotion and turned to out-of-home.
Challenge: Replace broadcast advertising and increase sales in key markets.
Insights: The target audience was frequent users of casual dining establishments which tend to be highly mobile and users of out-of-home messaging. By utilizing out-of-home, Red Lobster could not only reinforce television creative among brand users, but could create a sampling of the restaurants for non-users to whom the promotion had an appeal. The out-of-home advertising objective was to create promotion awareness, reinforce “craveability”, communicate value and drive traffic at mid-promotion when TV levels were lower.
Opportunity: Extend promotional window effectiveness by strategically-placed outdoor units that deliver value messages and drive traffic at CPM’s lower than broadcast alternatives. Utilize local research, PRIZM and GeoTrak® to locate and secure out-of-home units in each Red Lobster market that were within three miles of a given restaurant and located on key consumer mobility corridors. Combine strategic placement with appetite-appealing creative which included locator copy.
Results: The campaign yielded a 72% ROI for Red Lobster and set the stage for expansion of outdoor support for future promotions.