Case Study

Aussie Grill Puts Its Brand on the Map

Owned by Bloomin’ Brands, Inc., Aussie Grill provides a fast-casual dining experience featuring bold, adventurous flavors inspired by Outback Steakhouse. Using only the best ingredients and making every delicious menu item fresh to order, Aussie Grill has been redefining the possibilities of fast-casual since its first location opened in Saudi Arabia in 2019.

Industry  /  Restaurant

Aussie Grill expanded rapidly to markets around the world following its debut in 2019. As the restaurant grew, it needed to introduce the brand to customers, generate excitement for new location openings, and create awareness on highly competitive delivery apps. Roger West already had experience working with other Bloomin’ Brands companies, so the agency was a natural partner for Aussie Grill as the restaurant looked to redesign its website, expand its email marketing, and generate buzz around the new brand.

Solutions

  • Website Development
  • Email Strategy
  • Contact Database
  • Paid Media (social media, paid search, and programmatic display)
  • Packaging Redesign
  • Food Truck & Concession Stand Design

Getting the Message Out

Aussie Grill was already off to a great start by having a distinctive brand identity full of evocative imagery and distinctive colors, but it needed help creating a marketing strategy that generated attention and interest. Roger West immediately got to work deploying a multi-pronged campaign that combined newly designed emails, sponsored social media posts, and paid search ads that targeted potential customers with a variety of promotions and giveaways. These campaigns linked to customized landing pages that gathered contact information to grow Aussie Grill’s contact database and provided valuable information about new store locations, menu items, and delivery services.

With Aussie Grill looking to expand its footprint throughout Florida, Roger West also designed several physical assets for new locations. These included a portable grill at Raymond James Stadium, which was successful enough to pave the way for a permanent concession stand later in the year, and an Aussie Grill food truck, which allowed the brand to take its distinctive style and flavor on the go to connect with customers throughout the region. The image-heavy designs were a perfect fit for Instagram posts, which helped Aussie Grill reach the younger audience its bold menu was designed to attract.

The Roger West team took several steps to connect Aussie Grill with new customers:

  • Designed new email templates and built a segmented contact database for targeted marketing campaigns.
  • Designed new email templates and built a segmented contact database for targeted marketing campaigns.
  • Used Aussie Grill’s signature brand colors and imagery to design a concession stand full of “Big Auss Flavor” at Raymond James Stadium.
  • Creative development of website, paid search, social media, and display assets promoting special events, deals, and giveaways to grow contact list and build brand awareness.
  • Redesigned food packaging to convey the brand’s distinctive attitude and sense of humor.
  • Created a bold, eye-catching design for the Aussie Grill food truck to build brand awareness in new markets.
  • Executed a multi-channel digital advertising campaign to promote Aussie Grill winning the Best Sandwich in Tampa Bay Award for 2021, new store openings, and evergreen support for showcasing everyday menu items and Brand/location awareness.

Creating a Better Online Experience

As these campaigns drew more attention to the brand, the Roger West team got to work on a complete redesign of the Aussie Grill website. The original site was built with hardcoded HTML, making it difficult to maintain and modify over time. With the company undergoing rapid growth, it needed a website that was flexible enough to respond to changing priorities while also providing an outstanding user experience to visitors.

At the same time, Aussie Grill was looking to expand its reach with a virtual kitchen service through existing Outback locations. They needed a specialized microsite that could integrate with popular delivery services to route orders to the optimal location for fast delivery.

Roger West used Sitefinity to build a new dynamic website with multiple interactive modules that made it easy to switch out content as needed. Hosted on Microsoft Azure and fully integrated with MailChimp and Google Maps, the new site allows visitors to quickly access menus, locate the nearest restaurant, place online orders, and explore catering options. No longer constrained by a static HTML design, Aussie Grill can now make updates to feature the latest promotions and menu offerings.

The team also built a separate microsite to provide menu and location information to online delivery apps for Aussie Grill’s virtual kitchen service. Streamlined and fully optimized for performance, the microsite allows the restaurant to reach a whole new audience that might not yet have a physical location nearby but can still experience the bold flavor of Aussie Grill.

Aussie Grill Website Updates

  • Optimized for mobile-first browsing
  • Fully AFA, CCPA, & GDPR compliant
  • Seamless third-party integrations for online ordering, delivery, & gift card purchases
  • Added tracking to provide better visibility into site performance
  • Promotional home page sliders to highlight news and events
  • Added gift card purchasing
  • Uses database sign-up form for lead-capturing
  • Extra SEO-rich content
  • Added location search bar
  • Redesigned website hierarchy to focus on Menu, Locations, Order Online, & Catering
  • Added location detail pages, offers page, careers page, FAQs page, “In the News” page, and Contact Us page

Results

14k

new email contacts

152%

site traffic growth

124%

online order growth

Teaming up with Roger West, we quickly learned that their team would become an integral partner to Aussie Grill!  As a new brand, we find ourselves in unfamiliar space that requires creative thinking and "test and learn" scenarios, and the Roger West team is always there as a strategic thought and business partner to help us navigate the process.  We celebrate the successes we have had so far in our relationship and look forward to the many more we know are to come.”

Kim Coles
Director, Marketing at Aussie Grill

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