Maggiano’s Celebrate Every Win

Merkle and Maggiano’s Little Italy have partnered for several years to help the top-rated restaurant develop its email marketing and paid media program to grow its online ordering, catering, and banquet business. After completing several successful campaign initiatives, Merkle and Maggiano’s dove into a campaign driving guests to engage more, both in stores and through to-go options. 



While the pandemic still played a major factor on the food industry and Maggiano’s family-style cuisine made it an obvious choice for celebrating life’s major events, Merkle and Maggiano’s set out to redefine “occasion” and entice guests to use any occasion as a reason to celebrate their wins in everyday life. Under the premise of “Celebrate Every Win,” Merkle’s strategy, user experience, paid media, and email teams leveraged its NXT Intelligence™ approach to target the right guests with the right messages at the right times. 



Merkle developed five audiences – comfort seekers, empty nesters, family wranglers, parent partiers, and takeout mavens, along with an overarching brand approach – to then target those audiences with distinct messaging through an engaging video series. The agency developed all of the messaging, reassuring Maggiano’s guests that it’s OK to treat themselves for putting together that entertainment system, finding a babysitter, or having a girl’s night out, whether that treat happened in-restaurant, or at home.



Merkle worked with production company Vagrants to shoot and produce the spots, while its paid media and email teams then ensured Maggiano’s was serving up the video ad in the best format for the device and channel in which they were viewing.