2015 was the time for fast-casual concepts in Los Angeles – but at the turn of the year in 2016, the city wasn’t done. A new ramen player awoke in the Eastside’s Atwater Village, a sleepy, funky, kindred town far from LA’s so-called ramen mecca in the Westside’s Sawtelle.

Ozu East Kitchen was to be the first restaurant for owner Paul Yi, a well-traveled producer of Asian film festivals. Over the years he accumulated a menu’s worth of inventive comfort dishes, and now he had a savvy home and professional team to showcase the spread.

And JWA was enlisted at the ground level to get the word out.

Understanding that Atwater Village was off the radar for many, our strategy focused on highlighting Paul’s unique approach to a lighter ramen, building an early fan-base of social media influencers by way of invites, and visually repping the inventive nature of menu standouts to local press. An immense success, the campaign culminated in a favorable LA Weekly review and a live TV demo on KCAL 9.