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How does a 35-year-old restaurant go digital-first, and seduce a whole country to eat its world better? By honing in on its values.

IKU Wholefoods was one of the pioneers in plant based eating and first started in 1985 from a small shop front in Glebe, New South Wales. In 2021, IKU decided to rebrand and launch a large-scale delivery service for its vegan or plant based macrobiotic and gluten free meals.

In partnership with Universal Favourite, one of the leading design studios in the world, we re-energised their brand and team to not only reclaim the high ground in sustainable plant based food in Australia, but enable them to transform a local eatery into a national ready-meal business.

Concept:
For 35 years, cult restaurant IKU has been on a mission to help Sydneysiders eat better. Best known for being one of Australia’s first ever plant-based restaurants, recently added a D2C model to its offering, launching a meal delivery service.

How do we leverage the essence of the IKU brand to make healthy ready meals so desirable, people go out of their way to buy them?

Insight:
You could have mistaken our move into ready meals as a battle for convenience. But we saw it as an extension of the strategy IKU has always had. You can change the world and your health just by what you choose to eat.

Execution Strategy:
Avoid the category’s obsession with easy health and own the emotional high ground of how a mouthwatering meal can change the world.

Brand idea: "Eat your world better."

Impact: Today IKU has been unstoppable. Since the re-brand, they have extended their retail presence nationwide, and have category leading advocacy and reviews. From a business perspective, it’s all good news.

Results:
13M Australians reached
Growth first 6 months 100%
Online traffic growth 958%
Conversion rate 3X
Retention rate 4X
Target audience sales 60%

Our work was featured in:
UnderConsideration
MindSparkle
We And The Color
Fonts In Use
Broadsheet
CMO Magazine