In 2014, Red Lobster was newly independent from Darden Restaurants and eager to shake off that sticky "seafood lover in you" reputation. Enter me.
With a modern new voice as wry as your favorite dinner companion, as warm as a Cheddar Bay Biscuit, and as trusted as a 5-star Yelp review, along with vibrant, editorial-style imagery to match, I helped give one of the nation's most reliable purveyors of food porn a personality to go with its looks.
For three years, I helped managed a team of creatives across broadcast, digital, social, website, and CRM. Within a fast-moving retail world, I led my team to widen our guests' expectations of the brand, pushing every limitation possible to deliver engaging, unexpected content.
Disclaimer: I stopped working on the business years before the 2024 bankruptcy filing.
BROADCAST / With hunger to induce for 7 promos every year, we produced a lot of spots. Here are a few of my favorites.
SOCIAL / Constantly encouraging a company with a 50-year history to dive into the present was not easy. But that made the moments we succeeded that much sweeter. From children who have figured out how to hustle Santa with Cheddar Bay Biscuits, to assembling our team and heading to the Times Square Red Lobster to get in on the trending Mannequin Challenge, this is some of our best work for the brand.
And those biscuit-hungry kids? The "cutting my own bangs" thing may or may not have been ripped from my autobiography.
Digital / For each of the 7 promos every year, we shot stills, wrote banner copy, and resized until our art directors' eyes bled. And always got them out on time. Here are a few of my favorites from Endless Shrimp and Lobsterfest, our top two recurring promotions.
WEB / As part of modernizing the brand, we took a website more at home in the time of Geocities and built a beautiful, responsive, mobile-friendly experience.
CRM / During my time on the brand, the agency team built a sophisticated CRM program. In addition to making sure there was a consistent look, feel, and tone across the digital, social, broadcast, website, and CRM worlds, we prepared the occasional sizzle reel. Not only did I write this one, but I swigged a strong coffee, took a deep breath, and hammed it up for the voiceover.