Dive Temporary:
- Taste Flav is coming to Purple Lobster’s assist on the tails of the seafood chain submitting for Chapter 11 chapter safety in Could, per a information launch.
- The rapper-turned-reality-TV persona narrates new advert spots that hype the return of Crabfest, a seasonal promotion for Purple Lobster’s crab menu choices. Social movies have been produced by Taste Flav, who has been dropping in on restaurant places to precise his help for the model.
- The “Crab Your Method” marketing campaign was a last-minute pivot away from authorized inventive after Taste Flav reached out to assist the embattled firm. Extra parts embrace an augmented actuality filter and merchandise impressed by Taste Flav’s distinctive outsized clock necklace.
Dive Perception:
Purple Lobster is attempting to dispel doomsaying about its enterprise with assist from iconic hip-hop hypeman Taste Flav, although turning issues round will probably be a tall order for the model grappling with chapter. The shortly assembled marketing campaign, executed with inventive company BarkleyOKRP, bats again towards notions on the web that the chain is “going away” and as a substitute pushes full steam forward on Crabfest, a recurring seasonal promotion that this 12 months touts offers on Cajun Butter, Roasted Garlic Butter and Merely Steamed crab legs.
The advertising effort leans into lamentations about final month’s extensively mentioned Chapter 11 chapter submitting, referencing a #SaveTheBiscuits hashtag shared by followers on-line, together with Taste Flav. Belongings embrace 15- and 30-second spots narrated by Taste Flav — who drops his “Yeah boy!” catchphrase — together with social movies and an AR filter that lets customers nearly don the rapper’s recognizable clock necklace. The accent moreover serves because the inspiration for merchandise that swaps out the timepiece for one modeled on a large Cheddar Bay Biscuit and a bib for chowing down on the model’s eponymous menu merchandise.
“We love seeing our followers present up and rally for us, so when Taste Flav reached out, we answered the decision and invited him to affix us in reminding followers we’re right here to remain,” mentioned Sara Bittorf, chief expertise officer at Purple Lobster, in a press release.
Touting the return of Crabfest follows Purple Lobster not too long ago touchdown in scorching water for a special value-focused promotion. A lot of the dialogue across the firm’s decline initially fixated on Final Countless Shrimp, a suggestion that permit diners snack on as a lot shrimp as they wished for a flat fee. What began as an LTO turned a everlasting menu fixture in 2023, a transfer that helped drive visitors however reportedly sparked inside consternation and, finally, added to monetary pressures.
Nevertheless, Purple Lobster’s issues stretch again at the very least a decade additional, when private-equity agency Golden Gate Capital acquired the model for $2.1 billion from Darden Eating places and arrange a sale-leaseback actual property deal that got here with punishing lease prices, as reported by Restaurant Dive. Excessive management churn and the eventual shift to possession beneath Thai Union Group, a worldwide seafood provider that allegedly pressured Purple Lobster to purchase extra shrimp for Final Countless Shrimp, added to the woes that led to the Chapter 11.
