Queen Bey Anoints A Seafood Restaurant Chain

How much is an endorsement from Beyoncé worth? Red Lobster just found out.

After Queen Bey mentioned the restaurant chain in her latest release, “Formation” (her first new song since 2014), Red Lobster got an unexpected — and much welcomed — sales boost to the tune of 33 percent.

The song, and subsequent video (as well as a Super Bowl halftime performance), have caused quite a stir in the media — among fans and detractors alike. Several factions have formed in the days and weeks following the song’s release, with a focus on the racy, politically charged and controversial lyrics that talk about black culture in America, Hurricane Katrina, police brutality and Beyoncé’s own financial stature.

The video that accompanied the song’s release was up to the usual high standards of Ms. Knowles. It featured fine-tuned choreography, elaborate sets and costumes and poignant images, both from news media and those created for the video.

And her Super Bowl performance was nothing short of one of her best to date. She took the field with an “army” of all-female, all-African-American dancers, who happened to be dressed in paramilitary garb reminiscent of the Black Panthers. It was bold.

The song, video and subsequent performance helped to create a media frenzy, with the singer at the center. This wasn’t her first time at this particular rodeo, and it is somewhat evident that the singer was aware her music would cause a stir. And stir it did.

People were outraged, people were moved, people were stirred to boycott Beyoncé outside the NFL office in Manhattan after her halftime show appearance (well, almost). And, of course, people took to social media to share their opinions. Regardless of their stance, people were most certainly talking about what Beyoncé had done.

Which is all to say, when your restaurant gets its name dropped casually deep in the explicit lyrics (a bit too explicit to print here) of a pop icon’s song … this is the way you want it to happen. The restaurant chain, which has been struggling in recent years, saw same-day sales for Sunday (Feb. 7) jump 33 percent over the previous year. The company was mentioned 300,000 times over the Super Bowl weekend (42,000 times in just one hour) and became a trending topic on the social outlet for the first time in its history.

“We are absolutely delighted with what we saw over the weekend, particularly the consumer sentiment that we saw expressed,” Kim Lopdrup, CEO of Red Lobster, told CNBC in a recent interview. “It’s clear that Beyoncé has helped create some Red Lobster fans, and we are very grateful to her for that.” While the chain normally sees a moderate boost in sales this time of year due to its annual “Lobster Fest,” this was extraordinary.

And it couldn’t have come at a better time for the struggling restaurant chain, which was sold in 2014 by Darden Restaurants Inc. (along with Olive Garden) to private equity firm Golden Gate Capital for $2.1 billion. Following that sale, Lopdrup told BuzzFeed News: “We believe we’re benefiting greatly from being an independent company. We’ve had positive comparable restaurant sales growth each quarter since separation.”

In addition, the 700-location restaurant chain took on a series of quality and operational improvement measures, all aimed at improving customer satisfaction. According to BuzzFeed, changes in the kitchen were made to improve food quality and taste. After its prior strategy of offering a greater variety of meat dishes, like pork and chicken, failed to grow sales, the chain returned to its briny roots, offering 85 percent seafood on its menu, up from 75 percent, President Salli Setta told BuzzFeed. And, true to its name, it now offers more lobster dishes. Cooks also made changes to their preparation: Starting in the summer of 2015, they began cooking the shrimp in shrimp cocktail in restaurants to produce a plumper, tastier morsel and also began testing breaded-to-order fish and chips. The chain’s beloved cheddar biscuits have remained the same. “It has gone better than any of us dared hope,” Lopdrup told BuzzFeed.

So, when the buzz started forming around the Beyoncé song lyrics, you can imagine how excited the chain must have been to showcase its new and improved brand.

It was obvious early on that the chain restaurant didn’t know quite how to handle the sudden spotlight. There were some early social media fumbles (involving some cringeworthy puns), but it soon seemed to recover and has been coasting on a pleasant high ever since. For Valentine’s Day, as Fortune noted in a recent article, Red Lobster launched a t-shirt giveaway campaign aimed at its (and the restaurant industry’s) busiest day of the year. Couples who took selfies at a Red Lobster location were entered to win matching shirts, with the phrase “Someone thinks I’m #Lobsterworthy.” Red Lobster spokeswoman Erica Ettori told BuzzFeed that the shirt “means different things to different people” and wasn’t necessarily in response to “Formation,” although one can’t help but believe it’s in response to the song’s lyrical shoutout.

Well played, Red Lobster. It wasn’t a Beyoncé-level performance, of course, but who can aspire to that?

(Not Chris Martin, that’s for sure.)