Loco Refreshes Wagamama with Latest Content Films

When wagamama decided to introduce new dishes to the menus at their Heathrow and Gatwick airport restaurants, they looked to Loco’s expertise to create a series of content films. Loco’s first set of wagamama films launched last summer on the enormous 21m x 2m screen in Heathrow T5 resulting in increased awareness of their breakfast offerings and more footfall throughout the day to their airport restaurant. So, it’s more than a clever pun to say that their work has been a huge success.

wagamama's airport screens are much more than pictographic menus for their restaurants. They are an opportunity to express the brand’s values and make an emotional connection with travellers in the busy concourses. In the pre-production stage of the project, our creative team came up with a way to tell the stories of fresh ingredients transforming into delicious wagamama dishes, reiterating the theme of our original films, “from preparation to enjoyment”.

For the filming, Loco reunited its original production dream team and tasked themselves with an ambitious shooting schedule. Besting their previous record of filming nine dishes over two days, Loco filmed seven dishes in a single day. For maximum efficiency, the team organised two simultaneous Arri Amira 4k table-top shoots in wagamama’s central London flagship restaurant. But, to tell the story of the 9 dishes, the team needed to capture four different set ups: ingredients, preparation, cooking and the completed dish.

The team storyboarded and planned the shooting schedule to allow framing set-ups to create films for Heathrow airport’s ultra-widescreen display, the Gatwick airport lounge portrait screen and the skinny, vertical split screens of the Gatwick restaurant’s exterior.

For the finishing stages, editor/VFX artist Aidan Taub compiled and composited the most delicious looking footage combined with on-screen graphics. Then, colourist Jon Davey set to work on another mouth-watering grade.

The latest run of wagamama films are already welcoming happy travellers to try tasty new dishes. Next time your tummy is rumbling in an airport lounge, follow the digital signage to the wagamama restaurant near you.