Moxies is taking what typically happens behind the scenes to the front of house with a social-led marketing push that invites select customers into its menu-making process.

The premium casual restaurant’s “Tastemakers” program takes the focus-group testing process common to national menu rollouts and turns it into an interactive and exclusive consumer-facing campaign.

Tanya Thomson, senior director of brand and marketing at Moxies, tells strategy that “Tastemakers” represents a marketing mindset that has been developing since creative agency Conflict became the company’s agency of record in spring 2024 and began work with Pomp and Circumstance, which has been the restaurant’s PR and influencer AOR since 2022.

“We decided to go down to the non-traditional route. So this is almost replacing a brand campaign,” Thomson says. “This approach was, ‘OK, let’s completely rewrite the script here.’ How do we show the brand in a meaningful way but also bring people into it as a part of the conversation so it just felt more natural and organic?”

Thomson says the decision to root the brand’s identity in reality-based customer experiences was informed by internal research showing that Moxies’ past marketing efforts were getting lumped in with the messaging of other brands in the premium-casual category.

“A lot of the consumers couldn’t really differentiate – it just felt the same to them,” she says. “What they were seeing is the dining experience just felt similar to their everyday life. It was very much a routine. So we were trying to create a program that escapes that predictability.”

Moxies’ first “Tastemaker” panel was selected from a mix of “brand advocates” and online influencers with clout in the food space, Thomson says. Participants received scorecards to rate and comment on items being tested for next winter’s menu, with everything from flavour combinations to product names open to change.

The first phase of the program was executed in Toronto, but Thomson says a “Tastemakers” expansion into the key markets of Calgary and Vancouver is being considered. Parent company Northland Group has opened 57 Moxies locations across North America as part of a hospitality portfolio that includes brands such as Denny’s, Chop Steakhouse and Bar, Sutton Hotels and others.

The three-month media rollout was planned by Moxies agency of record EssenceMediaCom and includes connected TV, paid media, paid social and digital and OOH display elements.