• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, January 26, 2016

Carrabba’s Italian Grill is launching a marketing campaign to highlight its new menu and approach to cooking. It’s calling it a “fresh, contemporary take on Italian cuisine” that adds 20 new items from shareable small plates to wood-fired appetizers and entrees.  

The marketing campaign, called “This Is How You Do Italian,” is the first from Carrabba’s new agency, Fitzgerald & Co, part of Interpublic’s McCann Worldgroup. The effort is designed to capture the restaurant's new approach and what it embraces.

Katie Knight, Group Vice President and CMO for Carrabba’s Italian Grill says, “The new menu and our new campaign share our story – a place where you can enjoy great food with friends or family any day of the week.”

The campaign spans all media, including national broadcast as well as digital and social components.  

To kick off the marketing launch, Carrabba's asked people to sign up to get one of a million free dishes – and by end of day the following day, all million free dishes had been claimed. 

A short film highlighting the new approach and menu refresh can be seen on the restaurant’s Web site and will be pushed out through their social-media presence.

“We felt that if we were going to make a bold competitive statement like ‘This is how you do Italian,’ we’d better show people how we do Italian,” states Noel Cottrell, Chief Creative Officer at Fitzgerald & Co.