• by Teresa Buyikian , 4 hours ago

Yet another struggling burger chain has a new CMO.

Red Robin just announced it has hired Scott Hudler as CMO. Hudler joins the burger chain from Whataburger, where he has been senior vice president-CMO since 2024.

Hudler replaces Russ Klein, who has been serving as the brand’s interim CMO since April 2025 and now moves into a consulting role.

Before Whataburger, Hudler spent almost two years at Cotton Patch Café, departing after serving as president, and three years at Torchy’s Tacos as CMO. Earlier in his career he spent over a decade at Dunkin’, reaching the position of senior vice president, chief digital officer. He has also worked at Dick’s Sporting Goods, Mars and Popeyes.

“Scott has a proven track record of building iconic brands, connecting with guests and delivering broad-based business results,” said Dave Pace, president and CEO of Red Robin. “His experience, creativity and guest-first mindset make him the right leader to advance our First Choice marketing approach and drive Red Robin's next phase of growth.”

Red Robin and Pace rolled out the First Choice corporate turnaround strategy in July 2025, comprised of five pillars; hold serve (maintaining operational efficiency, service speed and food quality); drive traffic; deliver value; find money (cut costs and pay down debt); and fix restaurants (repair deferred maintenance and integrate modern technology).

 The turnaround plan appears to be paying off somewhat: During Q1 of 2026 the chain saw the most customer traffic since 2023. Yet Red Robin’s 2026 Q1 revenue was $378.3 million, still down 3.6% compared to the first quarter of 2025. Annual revenue for 2025 was $1.21 billion, a 3.1% decline from 2024.