We Hear: Red Robin Launches Creative Review

By Patrick Coffee 

Casual dining chain Red Robin is currently in the midst of a full creative review.

The company signed Vitro of San Diego as its AOR back in January 2013 to handle both creative and media after dropping Minneapolis’ Periscope. The chain later chose Denver’s LRXD as its lead digital agency in July 2013. The reviews came several years after Red Robin announced plans to ditch all TV advertising and watched its stock price fall accordingly, and they were preceded by the hiring of CMO Denny Marie Post, who was promoted to president in February. In December the chain named Jonathan Muhtar, who was formerly EVP/CMO at Captain D’s, as its new chief marketer.

Much of Vitro’s work for the client involved pitchwoman “Melanie,” and it culminated in January with a Terminator: Genisys tie-in which may have involved a banner ad that was actually…cool.

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A spokesperson for Vitro declined to comment for this post. We have repeatedly reached out to Red Robin’s PR department and received no response.

Multiple sources, however, confirm that the review is ongoing and that Vitro’s fellow MDC Partners shop KBS is one of the agencies pitching.

It’s unclear at this time exactly which parts of the account are involved, but we have reason to believe Vitro may retain the media portion of the business and that it will also continue working on creative campaigns until after the review is complete…which could be several months from now.

In other, stranger Red Robin news, the company recently announced that it would become the first(?) American chain to offer ramen burgers for the meat-averse demographic. (No, this isn’t an April Fools’ joke.)

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