Contágio Comunicação

Restaurant marketing rarely breaks at the idea level. It breaks during execution. Campaigns are built around service hours, staffing constraints, and fluctuating demand. Messaging has to adapt quickly to what is happening on the floor, not just what performs well online. In that environment, marketing only works when it is structured around how restaurants actually operate.

That execution-first reality defines Contágio Comunicação, a branding and performance agency. It helps restaurants grow sustainably in an algorithm-driven market by structuring executable marketing systems around real operational constraints. Over time, this restores control over brand expression, customer data, and margins.

Founded in 2003 by Marcelo Monteiro and Lívia Castro, Contágio has grown over more than two decades by working exclusively with restaurant brands across Brazil and the U.S.

“We believe visibility alone doesn’t build businesses,” says Marcelo Monteiro, founder. “When branding, media, and CRM are structured as one system, restaurants stop reacting to platforms and start making decisions they can sustain.”

The Fundamentals of Sustainable Growth

For restaurants, presence across the full customer journey is nonnegotiable, from search and social discovery to reviews, in-store experience, and direct communication. Contágio’s approach prioritizes participation over exposure. This includes active reputation management, the development of owned audiences through email and messaging platforms, and the deliberate reduction of over-reliance on third-party channels that introduce volatility and margin pressure.

This operating discipline is formalized through a proprietary framework known internally as the Fundamentals. Applied consistently across every client engagement, each cycle consolidates data from all relevant touchpoints to extract insights, identify constraints, and define the next execution sprint. Creativity remains central to the process, but it is treated as an output shaped by context, not a starting point. Performance is evaluated through commercial signals: demand, visit frequency, retention, and revenue, rather than surface-level engagement metrics.

The methodology is shaped by more than two decades of restaurant-specific experience, spanning both the pre-digital era, where positioning, design, and storytelling define brand value, and today’s algorithm-driven landscape. It is further informed by firsthand entrepreneurial experience, building and operating food and technology ventures, including early nutrition and delivery platforms.

More recently, Contágio has incorporated AI-driven tools to support data interpretation, prioritization, and decision-making. These tools are used to increase efficiency and clarity without adding operational complexity for restaurant teams.

From Digital to Physical, Building Cohesive Brand Systems

Contágio’s perspective extends beyond digital channels.

“We treat the physical environment as a critical part of the marketing system, ensuring that menus, packaging, in-store communication, and visual identity reinforce the same brand promise expressed online,” says Lívia Castro, founder.

Menu engineering, design hierarchy, and intentional in-store messaging are used to guide decision-making, elevate perceived value, and increase average ticket size, without relying on discounts or price-driven tactics. Every intervention is evaluated through a simple lens: does it strengthen the brand across touchpoints, or fragment it?

This integrated approach has delivered measurable impact for multi-unit and international restaurant brands operating in competitive markets across Brazil and the U.S. In these engagements, Contágio has functioned less as an external supplier and more as a strategic partner.

In practice, this has included structuring group booking journeys, aligning digital campaigns with in-venue communication, and connecting physical experiences directly to CRM systems to support retention and scalability. Over time, trust deepened, data was shared more openly, and marketing decisions shifted from reactive tactics to long-term growth planning.

Over sustained engagements, this execution discipline changes how clients work with marketing altogether. As confidence builds, restaurant operators begin sharing not only performance data, but operational constraints, commercial targets, and long-term plans. Decisions become less reactive, data is discussed more openly, and marketing shifts from constant adjustment to structured growth planning.

Ultimately, Contágio offers restaurant operators a disciplined alternative to fragmented, platform-dependent growth. By aligning brand strategy, performance marketing, and operational reality into a single execution system, the agency helps restaurants make better decisions, protect margins, and maintain consistency as conditions change.