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YO! Sushi

Yo! Sushi brand refresh places Tokyo at the heart

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By Natalie Mortimer, N/A

April 25, 2016 | 3 min read

Yo! Sushi has launched a new campaign centred around the idea of 'This is Tokyo' to introduce its refreshed brand strategy.

The sushi restaurant, which delivers food to its customers using the Japanese style 'kaiten' conveyor belt method, wanted to hero the 'authenticity' of the dishes on its menu and approached design agency & Smith to refresh its branding.

The agency took design cues from the anime / manga culture and introduced Kanji script to Yo! Sushi's menu and made sure all sections were named as they would be in Tokyo. The launch campaign leads with Japanese dish names so everyone can learn the difference between Takoyaki (octopus filled dough balls) and Okonomiyaki (street food pancakes).

& Smith also positioned the restaurant brand as the 'ears to the ground' for what's happening in Tokyo right now via a zine/newspaper featuring fashion and music as well as food.

Dan Bernstein, director, & Smith said following an interview with Yo! Sushi executive chef Mike Lewis he knew the idea had to be centred around authenticity.

"He told me his tales of searching the streets, homes and restaurants of Tokyo hunting down the best recipes and ingredients to bring back to the UK. From then on it was obvious this was something we had to shout about.

“We wanted to give everyone a taste of what’s going on in Tokyo right now. That’s where the zine/newspaper menu idea came from. It gave us the chance to show some nice snippets of art, fashion and music alongside their food. The idea is that the editorial content will change four or five times a year".

The new design was rolled out across all 70 plus sites in the UK over the last two weeks and is about to launch on all sites in the US later in the month.

YO! Sushi

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