Best Restaurants

With a gift card that unlocks a curated selection of Australia’s finest eateries, Best Restaurants is about more than just dining; it’s an invitation to feast on unique and memorable culinary experiences with those you love.

As the appetite for new and diverse dining options grew, Best Restaurants and its parent company, Best Gift Group, recognised the need to spice up their brand to prepare for their expanding verticals. They chose Smack Bang to lead a creative overhaul, refreshing their brand and strategy to ensure they remain the top choice for food lovers everywhere.

We cooked up a brand identity that’s as bold and engaging as the flavours they champion, setting the table for Best Restaurants to serve up unforgettable dining adventures as they expand into new territories.

Scope

Who is Best Restaurants?

Best Restaurants is your culinary co-conspirator, dishing out the ultimate passport to Australia’s dining delights. This isn’t just about eating; it’s about savouring each moment, from buzzy urban eateries to serene seaside spots. Whether you’re gifting a gourmet getaway or treating yourself, Best Restaurants transforms every meal into a tastebud adventure. With a gift card that opens doors to a curated selection of dining experiences, Best Restaurants invites everyone to the table—foodies, families, friends, and first dates. As the culinary scene becomes crowded with choices, Best Restaurants stands out by making exceptional dining accessible and exciting, offering a taste of something truly special.

As Best Gift Group – the brand’s parent company – kicked off on an ambitious expansion into new categories, they approached Smack Bang to orchestrate a timely refresh of their brand and strategy, ensuring their identity evolves as dynamically as their offerings.

Our approach

In redefining Best Restaurants, we set out to position it as a gregarious, unpretentious, and highly sessionable brand that invites everyone to the table. Understanding that Best Restaurants is fundamentally about fostering human connections, we crafted an identity that seamlessly blends food, wine, and the sheer joy of good company. This vision was carried from the digital sphere to tangible touchpoints—think merchandising, co-branding opportunities, and vibrant campaigns—all designed to make real connections in a digital age. We infused the brand with an air of accessibility and festivity, ensuring that every interaction invites a celebration of culinary culture.

The brand now lives and breathes ‘flavour’, capturing the vibrancy and intimacy of dining with loved ones. Through a diverse set of illustrations and a spicy yet inviting tone of voice, we introduced a visual and verbal language that speaks directly to the heart of social dining. This new identity is both modern and elegant, paying homage to the rich cultural and culinary landscape that makes each dining experience unique.

The brand in the making

With a focus on warmth and candidness, we designed a logomark, illustration system, supporting icons, a unique colour palette, bold typefaces, and a tone of voice that together elevate Best Restaurants across every medium. This blend ensures each campaign, website interaction, and social post not only stands out but feels like an invitation to join the fun.

Our creative team developed a distinct illustration suite that spark warmth and provide moments of joy throughout the user experience. These elements add playful flexibility and an iconic edge to Best Restaurants, infusing campaigns, collabs, apparel, and spaces with distinctive warmth and moments of joy.

At the core of it all is our adaptable logomark, playfully framing narratives and capturing the brand’s lively spirit. The colour palette, minimalist yet dynamic, marries the hues of Salt and Pepper with a mouth-watering Chilli to become an ownable palette that gives the brand clear distinction. And lastly, the Best Restaurant image and art direction, inspired the iconic and diverse offerings of its curation, complete the brand’s bold and unique identity.

The end result?

The rebrand of Best Restaurants has set a vibrant stage for its future—providing a strong foundation for partnerships, collaborations, and growth into new verticals. We energised the brand with a fresh strategy, a dynamic new visual identity, and an updated web and brand language that stays true to what customers love most. The result? A standout presence in the bustling gift card market, with a visual identity that’s as unique as it is memorable. With every touch—from the web interface to promotional materials—we’ve ensured that the essence of Best Restaurants—bold, candid, and ridiculously social—invites customers and merchants alike into a more flavourful world.

Applause

“We engaged Smack Bang for a full rebrand of our flagship brand, Best Restaurants. Their understanding of our business and creative goals was exceptional, considering all touchpoints. Their approach was thoughtful, creative, and methodical, guiding us seamlessly through the process. We’re thrilled with the outcome, as they modernised our brand while ensuring its adaptability as our business grows. Our ongoing relationship with them, spanning multiple projects, speaks volumes about the quality of their work and their focus on building strong relationships.”