Beware, Be Kind of Viral Influencers

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In this episode of The Digital Restaurant, Carl is joined by Emmy Award–winning storyteller Mike Duffy of Yum Crunch. Together they break down five timely stories shaping restaurants and tech:

• McDonald’s bets on web ordering through DoorDash—does convenience outweigh control?
• Yum Brands’ Byte platform fuels $9B in digital sales and rewrites the restaurant tech stack.
• Social listening lessons: Cracker Barrel’s backlash vs. KFC’s potato wedge comeback.
• Drone delivery’s tipping point—new FAA rules, Texas rollouts, pizza robots in LA, and the Ghost Kitchen 3.0 vision.
• The power and peril of influencers—when viral moments can make or break restaurants.

Tune in for insights on how digital disruption, AI, and influence are shaping the future of food.

00:50 – Big Macs without an app?
McDonald’s and DoorDash team up on a web-based ordering channel. Does this remove friction or hand too much control to a third party?

06:20 – How Byte is fueling Yum’s digital revolution
Yum Brands surpasses $9B in digital sales with its in-house AI platform Byte, reshaping marketing, operations, and delivery.

14:35 – Social listening: when to hear and when to act
KFC wins big with a potato wedge comeback while Cracker Barrel faces backlash over redesigns. Lessons in consumer engagement.

22:55 – Drone delivery is set to take off
Regulations shift, GoTo Foods tests drones in Texas, Serve robots deliver pizzas in LA, and Ghost Kitchens 3.0 may be on the horizon.

32:00 – Should operators be influencers?
The risks and rewards of social media influence: a San Francisco chef’s career collapses after a viral TikTok, while CPK and Pinky Cole show how to turn moments into opportunities.

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