Tech brands are predictable.
Clean. Precise. Controlled.
But restaurants?
They’re fast. Messy. Unfiltered.
And if we wanted to reach them, we had to do more than talk to them.
We had to speak their language.
Meaning no food stylists. No staged perfection.
Just a campaign with real restaurants. Real people. Real grit.
And when we stepped up
The industry took notice.
Square began as a payments company, but our evolution into a full-stack business solution came in response to real-world needs from business owners — particularly in the food and drink space. In the UK, independent restaurants, cafes, and bakeries were navigating post-pandemic recovery, staffing shortages, inflation, and rising energy costs.
The brief was to speak directly to the heart of the restaurant industry - not with features and benefits, but with empathy and understanding. Tech marketing in this space is typically sterile: clean visuals, abstract benefits, and no trace of the customer. Square wanted the opposite. They wanted to show up, shoulder-to-shoulder with restaurant owners, with a message that said: “We see you. We’ve got you.”
We set out to reflect the humour, hustle, and humanity of running a restaurant. From strategy to art direction, everything was grounded in authenticity - right down to our production partners bringing their own hospitality backgrounds into the shoot.
We filmed in London and Manchester to represent geographic and cultural diversity, selecting businesses across cuisines, communities, and ownership models to ensure the work would resonate widely. The result was a campaign that made Square feel like a fellow operator in the food scene - not just a software provider.
The idea was simple but radical in the B2B space: Show up in restaurants - at the fry station, the till, the service counter. Square wasn’t the hero of this story; the sellers were.
Instead of forcing the product into every shot, we embedded it naturally - just like in real service. The campaign design crossed boundaries by creating B2B marketing that looked and felt more like independent documentary storytelling than traditional advertising, and it surprised audiences by speaking their language instead of the brands.
Agency: In-house
Director: Josh Exell
DP: Tasha Dursma / Morgan Sinclair / Emma Hiley
Editor: Luke Exell
VFX: Rhys Obasi
Color: Tim Smith
Photography: Josh Exell
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GCD: Sean Conroy
CD: Neil MacLean
ACD/Copy: Oyinda Oluwa
Design: Megan Eckersley, Minh Cao, Atima Ng
Program Manager: Amina Ahmed
Production: Evan Groll