Oporto targets late-night cravings with new campaign and menu

September 17, 2025 10:40

Oporto's "Night Mode"

Portuguese-inspired fast-food chain Oporto has debuted a campaign and menu designed for Gen-Z’s late-night cravings, via Connecting Plots’ A Glo.

The outlet’s “Night Mode” campaign aims to reposition late-night eating as an enjoyable experience. When 9pm hits, Oporto effectively rebrands itself as a night-time destination for food, changing its logo to showcase a moon rather than its signature sun. The logo change plays out across the outlet’s app and in-store assets.

At the same time, the campaign is making use of creator-led content that spotlights “different ‘Night Mode’ personas”, such as gamers, students and party-goers.

It was developed from research that found that late-night eating often has negative connotations, such as being shameful or isolating. The work was designed to target Gen-Z and the group’s penchant for late-night eating, particularly between 10pm and 2am when orders reach their peak.

Oporto: “Night Mode” activated

“Late-night food is embedded in Portuguese culture, and it’s how many of our customers eat today,” Ben Simmons, head of marketing at Oporto, said in a media release. “This campaign makes Oporto part of those late-night moments in a way that’s authentic to our brand.”

According to Dave Jansen, chief creative officer and co-founder of Connecting Plots, embedding authenticity into the campaign was a matter of evolving the Oporto brand.

“The challenge with any branding or refresh is pushing it far enough to feel new, without breaking the recognition the brand has earned in people’s minds. With ‘Night Mode’, we didn’t reinvent Oporto, we simply evolved it,” Jansen said in an email sent to Mumbrella.

“The flame-grilled flavour, vibrancy and Portuguese roots remain, but we’ve given them an after-dark twist. The sun becomes a moon, the energy shifts, but the colour, type and tone are unmistakably Oporto.

“It’s not about changing who the brand is, it’s about showing how it can live in a new cultural moment… familiar, but surprising.”

The menu — which becomes available from 9pm in select Oporto stores across the country — was designed to make late-night meals an event, and features a range of products, including BBQ Crispy Wings, the Pulled Flame-Grilled Chicken Loaded Chips, and more.

Connecting Plots’ specialist influencer and social arm, A Glo, developed the platform.

As Simmons touched upon, the platform draws from Portuguese culture and its attitudes surrounding late-night meals. For Kent Pearson, A Glo’s managing partner, that meant injecting the spirit of Portugal’s mores into “Night Mode” and using it to influence how the team crafted all aspects of the work.

“In Portugal, late-night dining is more than just eating. It’s about connection, community, and celebration. Meals are often social rituals that stretch into the night, with food acting as the backdrop for laughter, music, and conversation,” Pearson said.

“We wanted to bring that spirit into the campaign by positioning ‘Night Mode’ as a time when the usual rules fade and social energy takes over.

“That influenced everything from the playful, communal, unapologetically joyful creative tone to the visual identity, which draws on the idea of transformation after dark.”

A Glo was appointed as the fast-food brand’s lead social and influencer agency in April.

CPPR — Connecting Plots’ PR division — launched in April with the agency’s first head of PR at the helm — and provides earned media support as part of A Glo’s remit.

“Our partnership with Oporto is about delivering brave, culturally sharp, creative work that earns its place in people’s lives and social feeds,” Pearson said in the same release.

“Late Night sets the tone for what’s next. We’re just getting started.”

Oporto’s “Night Mode” is airing across earned media, influencer, digital and social channels. Targeted ads are also being deployed on Meta and streaming platform, Twitch.