Red Lobster—which leaped out of bankruptcy with a new owner, CEO, and several promotions to appeal to new guests—is currently in the habit of making big changes. Its tech stack is among those shifts.
In 2023, the seafood giant decided to leave Olo after six years and bring online ordering in-house. But the seafood chain soon realized the difficulty of maintaining a homegrown solution, says CMO Nichole Robillard. It requires constant commitment to innovation and staying on top of security developments while also being cognizant of scalability.
That’s why Red Lobster announced in late June its return to Olo, starting with Sentiment, the tech firm’s reputation management platform, and Catering+, the company’s integrated catering solution.
“The ability of partnering with Olo and really leveraging their skill set, it allows us to maintain a best-in-class online ordering system or ecosystem in general without having to constantly be innovating and be on top of new technology and be able to integrate with new technology,” Robillard says. “They just take care of all of that for us.”
The move back to Olo is part of Red Lobster’s major comeback strategy. Robillard says the leadership team is focused on “making this brand relevant, compelling, and exciting, and we’ve really turned that into our marketing charge.” The chain is looking to create messaging that it didn’t have with previous leadership.
“We were very focused on whatever promotion was happening at the time. So it was Lobsterfest. It was Crabfest. It was just whatever window we were focusing on,” Robillard says. “And we’re still going to have those moments, with Crabfests and the crab boils, but there is an undercurrent of brand that we’ve started to build that’s really important so that guests really understand where we fit into their lives. That’s been one of our biggest challenges is everybody knows who Red Lobster is, but the last visit for most people was far too long ago. So we’re trying to trigger that next visit, give people a reason to stop and think about us in a different way and to consider us.”
Through activations, branding, and partnerships, Red Lobster hopes to make customers see themselves in the brand. The chain is showing up in pop culture like it never has before, including a recent mention on the “Late Show with Seth Meyers,” which discussed the company’s latest partnership with Snoop Dog and Dr. Dre’s new gin. Also, Red Lobster has forged a handful of sports-related partnerships since its target audience over-indexes with athletic fandom. Some examples include the WNBA’s Chicago Sky and Ice Cube’s Big3 basketball league. To attract younger guests, the brand teamed up with HBCUs on their Band of the Year programming to “show up in a cultural context that does hit on that relevant, compelling, and exciting turn, and also reminds people we’re still here,” Robillard says.
A digital transformation initiative is underway too, which is where Olo comes in.
The Sentiment tool allows Red Lobster to aggregate guest feedback and use sophisticated AI to uncover insights and emerging themes in real time. It also helps the brand respond to customers in a targeted and meaningful way while addressing issues as they arise. Catering+ will go live in September. Robillard views it as a “huge opportunity” as a revenue stream and marketing channel. She believes it will assist Red Lobster with reaching consumers that may not have visited its restaurants otherwise, whether that’s an office event or a social gathering.
Olo CEO and founder Noah Glass views both systems as big opportunities for Red Lobster, especially catering.
“I think [catering] was a long overlooked channel by most restaurants,” Glass says. “Some restaurants have been doing catering for a long time, but I’ve never seen the kind of gold rush that I’m seeing now for restaurants identifying that catering has kind of found money for every brand … It would be crazy not to be playing in that space. And when it is simplified, we like to think about Catering+ as sort of the easy button for operationalizing a catering program where the technology is taken care of down to how the orders are hitting the kitchen in a way that is appropriate for catering orders—where it’s production sheets and prep slips with a checklist-style format, not some long receipt that’s coming out of the point of sale.”
Glass adds that the cost-savings of working with a platform like Olo is too much to pass up. Brands avoid the expense of building a platform from scratch and having to maintain it. Meanwhile, Olo invests about $90 million annually into maintaining its platforms, which services over 750 restaurant companies. Additionally, by working with Olo, concepts effectively future-proof their tech stack, according to Glass; these brands gain access to the tech firm’s continuous innovation without the full cost. Glass says working with Olo typically costs half, or sometimes even less than half, compared to upkeeping a comparable platform in-house, not even factoring in the initial build cost.
“I’m excited for this turnaround as a guest,” Glass says. “I think the world needs more Red Lobster. It’s a really fun brand. It has an iconic place in our industry, and if we can be part of the wind beneath the wings of this brand as it reclaims its place in the sun, that is an awesome thing. It’s just fun to be a part of in our small way.”
Red Lobster has also brought on new CRM and loyalty partners to use its existing database to create “more meaningful and targeted conversations and communications with those audiences,” according to Robillard.
Previously, the chain relied on a “batch and blast” approach with broad messaging. Now, it’s starting to focus on what truly inspires and motivates its guests. Operationally, the company has enhanced its KDS systems, streamlined order flow, and is testing the return of Apple Pay and Google Pay.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Robillard says. “This brand is 60 years old. We went through a rough period, but we are back where our comeback is well underway and we’re very excited about the direction this business is taking.”
