The Approach: brand, website, and multi-channel marketing that put restaurants first

The PDM team collaborated closely to develop a cohesive creative foundation and then carried it through every touchpoint: branding, website experience, digital and print promotion, email, and social support.

Brand and creative direction

The visual and verbal identity needed to feel like Portland: colorful, warm, and a little bit celebratory—without overshadowing the restaurants themselves.

• Refreshed the Portland Dining Month visual system to highlight menus and neighborhoods while keeping the experience intuitive and legible

• Created flexible layouts that worked for everything from social graphics to print ads and billboards

• Crafted core messaging that centered value (“$35 and $55 menus”), discovery, and community over discount-driven language

Website and user experience

The PDM website was envisioned as the tool to guide diners to their next great meal. We structured the website around how real people choose where to eat—price, neighborhood, cuisine, and dietary preferences—and made sure every email, ad, and social post pointed clearly back to that experience.

With 128 restaurants participating at two different price points, three specific courses to detail per restaurant, and a variety of accommodations for dietary concerns, the website had to do a lot of heavy lifting.

• Designed a clean, mobile-friendly site that made it easy to browse menus, filter by price point, cuisine, neighborhood, and dietary preferences, and click through to reserve a table.

• Structured content so both first-time visitors and repeat diners could quickly find where to go next, including a “surprise me” button that randomly generated a new recommendation on click.

During the campaign, the site welcomed more than 80k visitors and more than 160k total sessions driven by email, ads, social, and partner channels.

Email and lifecycle communication

Email became the steady drumbeat of the campaign—keeping subscribers inspired with new menus, features, and reminders throughout the month.

• Developed email content and design that balanced practical “where to eat” guidance with storytelling and partner highlights

• Focused on clarity and scannability: clear calls-to-action, menu highlights, and links into the site filters and participating restaurant pages

• Supported list growth and on-site opt-in so future years can build on an engaged base

The list grew organically to more than 1,300 subscribers with an average open rate of 58% and click-through rates around 16%, well above typical industry benchmarks for events and hospitality.

Digital and print advertising

To reach both locals and visitors, the campaign layered targeted digital ads with high-visibility print placements, posters, and billboards across the city.

• Supported creative for social ads on Facebook and Instagram

• Partnered with media sponsors like The Oregonian, Willamette Week, Portland Mercury, Portland Monthly, and PDX Pipeline to adapt and extend the brand system across display, newsletter, and print formats

• Developed creative that made the value proposition unmistakable at a glance: month-long dining deals, clear price points, and plenty of reasons to go out more than once

Social media support and influencer-ready assets

Portland Dining Month already had a built-in community of food lovers and restaurant fans. The job was to give them something compelling to share.

• Developed on-brand social templates and graphics for Instagram and Facebook, along with modular content that restaurants and partners could adapt

• Helped support the launch of the @PDXDiningMonth Instagram handle with a consistent visual language across 40+ posts, including graphics, carousels, reels, giveaways, and collaborations

• Created assets that played well with influencer content and Travel Portland’s co-created reels, so user-generated content still felt cohesive with the campaign look and feel

Over the course of the month, restaurants and diners added another 200 tagged pieces of content, meaning the brand identity scaled organically across the community.