Papa Mo’s entertains serious fun in their brand and interior design

By Jacqui Gage-Brown, Dec 12 2019

As one of Papamoa’s newest food and drink establishments, Papa Mo’s is really living up to its name as the place where the community can have some serious fun!

But creating a fun, family-friendly environment, with a reputation for seriously good food, drink and service, takes a lot of planning and preparation, as Papa Mo’s founders and hospitality experts Matt and Luke can vouch.

From the location, building, and interior design, through to staff, chefs, food, drink, music, digital presence, events… the list is extensive. And it requires a strong brand design to tie all the elements together.

Months out from the opening of Papa Mo’s, Matt and Luke approached HGB to create a brand design that would position Papa Mo’s for success. The HGB team got to work, led by HGB strategic director Jacqui Gage-Brown and strategic marketing consultant Michele Lithgow.

“We kicked off with insight interviews with Matt and Luke, to uncover more about who they are, what drives and inspires them, and the culture and environment they wanted punters people to experience,” said Michele.

With the insight interviews completed, we set about identifying Matt and Luke’s core purpose – to have some serious fun and values – serious and fun.

“The guys told us they wanted a brand with personality, that would be a face for the business. They also told us they wanted the new establishment to belong to the community.”

“We thought, who better to preside over a beachside restaurant, while acting as a face for the business, than Neptune, God of the Sea? But we needed to ‘fun’ Neptune up a bit, and make him a part of the Papamoa community.”

Papa Mo’s was born – a serious but fun brand, with oodles of personality, which belongs to the community. We created a visual brand story and showed the guys how this could be used as artwork on the walls, menu and website to help people connect to the story of Papa Mo’s. We also showed them how the brand could come to life across all elements of the Papa Mo’s experience.

“This was such a fun project for the whole team – being able to take a creative concept and really see how far we could take it. We looked at how everything could be ‘on theme’ – from the interior theming and exterior design, signage, wall graphics, menus, coasters, through to uniforms, brand voice, social media posts, website, and events.”