BBQ Cartel

BBQ Cartel was a cult favourite—you just had to be lucky enough to know about them. How do you turn NZ’s best-kept BBQ secret into the brand everyone wants a piece of?

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Brand Strategy
Naming
Brand & Verbal Identity
Photography
Digital

2019

Great food deserves an audience, so we gave BBQ Cartel a brand as bold as their flavours.

The new identity balanced rogue and refined — edgy cartel-inspired branding with the meticulous craftsmanship behind their cooking. We structured their messaging into three tiers: Quality, Flavour, and Craft as the frontline, Service and Capability as the backbone, and History and Experience as the foundation.

Their low-and-slow barbecue needed visuals just as rich. Dark, moody photography with prohibition-era nods made their brand unmistakable. And the speakeasy-themed launch event? The perfect way to kick off their new era.

Since the rebrand, BBQ Cartel has become a cornerstone of Moveable Feasts’ portfolio, with a substantial year-on-year upswing in wedding and corporate bookings.

BBQ Cartel logo in white on black with the tagline “Masters of the Craft.”
Chef’s hand cutting forcefully through beef ribs with a cleaver, overlaid with the white BBQ Cartel brand stamp.
Series of BBQ Cartel brand stamps in white on black with taglines: “Masters of the Craft,” “Where there’s smoke there’s fire,” and “Where there’s fire there’s flavour.”
Close-up of the back of a black T-shirt with white text reading “Where there’s smoke there’s fire.” A woman works blurred in the background.
Chef in a black jacket holding a wooden board with a full smoked side of salmon, looking proudly at the camera.
Flat lay of a table filled with BBQ Cartel dishes, including ribs, brisket, salads, and sides arranged in a shared feast.

The outcome? A brand that’s harder to ignore and easier to choose. One that has helped move BBQ Cartel from word-of-mouth favourite to a serious player in weddings and corporate events.

A hand clenches a bunch of carrots in a fist, carrot juice spraying outward in an energetic, dramatic shot.
A hand pours jus over sliced meat on a wooden board, set against a dark, moody black background.

Winner winner
Cartel dinner.

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Metlifecare logo in white on a dark blue background.