Cafetería Marianao

My partner and I were challenged to create a campaign for Cafetería Marianao, a local Chicago Cuban restaurant. We wanted to keep this campaign light and playful. Our social tactic is inspired by the strong brand voice of companies like Denny’s, Chili’s and Wendy’s. These brands have created a social revolution by appearing more as a conversational account than a branded content account. By doing so, these accounts have earned the respect and loyalty of their consumers. These tweets use a popular meme format that is recognizable across all platforms. When a person hits the translation button, a message will pop up with a discount code for Cafe Marianao and a different translation such as “Really? You think that Taco Bell is authentic? We don’t know if we can help you but we’ll try.” and “Taking the easy way out with the translate button are we? Come to Cafeteria Marianao for real authentic Cuban food- maybe we can help you Spanish.” We wanted this campaign to be poking light-hearted fun at consumers while still respecting their intelligence.

Social

Translation: When you ask a gringo if they want Cuban food and they say they want Taco Bell

Print/TV Spot

For our print ad, we wanted it to hit on the insight that Cafe Marianao is real authentic food. In a world of avocado toast and self-proclaimed “foodies”, authenticity can be difficult to find. This print ad shows what real authentic food looks like- presentation is not something valued over taste. For our TV Spot, we based it off of comedian Billy Eichner’s popular web series “Billy on the Street.”