Wagamama uses Okido to unite restaurant, school and festival marketing

This week Wagamama will launch its brand new kids offering, with designs from independent arts and science children’s magazine, Okido.

Its restaurants across the uk will be asking kids to say hello to new character ‘Hoshi’ (meaning ‘star’ in japanese), designed exclusively for Wagamama by Rachel Ortas, head designer at Okido

Wagamama will be integrating Hoshi and the new kids identity across their 81 restaurants in the UK, with plans to roll out the character globally.

Okido designed collateral will also be extended to Wagamama’s popular school visits, in which children learn about how the japanese-inspired dishes are made, orders are taken and the restaurants are run. A refreshed bundle of learning aids will be rolled out for these visits, which saw 1,500 children visit restaurants in the last year. Goody bags available as part of the school visits include including origami inspired worksheets, stickers, aprons, jute bags and an attendance certificate for children to take home with them Wagamama director of marketing,

Ingrid Williamson comments: “we have been working with the talented designers at Okido for months, and are very proud to introduce Hoshi into the Wagamama family. Our kids menus and placemats are so important to what we feel should be a family experience in dining, and in helping children try different types of foods. hopefully with Hoshi on board we will attract many new fans, and build our reputation as a family friendly brand even further”

Okido are also part of the Wagamama lounge festival offering this year, conducting a live art installation at Camp Bestival in July.