TSW with Old Wild West:
we co-design the new digital strategy, starting from social channels

A partnership that puts research with people at the center of the new brand ecosystem: TSW takes Old Wild West’s digital communication by the hand to evolve it, starting from concrete listening to end customers.

Since March 2025, the Cigierre group, a leader in the Italian casual dining sector, has chosen TSW to redesign the digital strategy of its flagship brand, Old Wild West.

Starting from social channels, the goal is to involve the end customer throughout all the design phases to rethink the way people live and interact with the brand, to create digital experiences that are not simple contents, but opportunities to build bonds and share valuable moments around conviviality.

Listening at the heart of the strategy

For Old Wild West, as with all our projects, we start from an essential principle: listening. We do not consider people as simple users or customers, but as individuals with unique desires, emotions and stories. Our approach is to carefully observe their interactions, understand what makes an experience memorable – whether culinary or digital – and transform it into an engaging story.

The focus group with Generation Z: listening to understand

The focus group activity with representatives of Generation Z was the first step in designing the new strategy, with the aim of understanding their relationship with platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, as well as their perception of the brand. This qualitative research activity allowed us to gather valuable insights:

• Platform Preferences: Gen Z shows a clear preference for TikTok over Instagram, dedicating up to two hours a day to each platform, with a predilection for short, dynamic content. ​
• Type of content: on TikTok, they mainly look for entertainment and irony, relying on the algorithm of the “For You” section to discover new content.
• Reactions to advertising: They reject explicit advertising, preferring more subtle narratives and elaborate storytelling, as demonstrated by their interest in formats such as storytime and unboxing.
• Brand perception: They highlighted a discrepancy between Old Wild West’s advertising content and that present in the brand’s feed, suggesting greater aesthetic and narrative coherence.​

Insights become strategy: authenticity, listening and co-creation

The insights we gathered guided our strategy, orienting us towards creating authentic and engaging content, to allow Old Wild West to strengthen its presence on TikTok and create a genuine dialogue with people, significantly increasing engagement.

The experience with Old Wild West helps us to underline the importance of active listening and co-creation in Experience Design. By directly involving Generation Z in the strategic process, in fact, we were able to develop digital communication that responded to people’s real needs, transforming social channels into spaces of shared experience.

Mare Fuori: a tasteful entertainment

The Mare Fuori campaign for Old Wild West is the first example of this modus operandi. We worked on a creative concept that could coherently combine catering and television entertainment, in line with the tastes and expectations of the community.

And with Maria Esposito as the face of the campaign, O’ Menù, a menu entirely dedicated to the series, has come to life. An experience that goes beyond the simple act of eating, and transforms it into a moment of connection with a story much loved by the general public.

Every post, story or reel on Old Wild West channels is born from the interpretation of trends through the lens of people’s emotions and desires. The result? Content that not only informs, but creates an authentic dialogue with the community, especially with the younger generations.

Talking about food with irony and originality

Our challenge is to transform food into pure entertainment. Each dish is not just a gastronomic proposal, but an opportunity to smile, interact and break the conventional mold. The goal is not to simply show a menu, but to stimulate the public with witty and entertaining content that invites you not to take yourself too seriously, inside and outside the saloons of Old Wild West.

The Experience Design approach: designing with and for people

At TSW, Experience Design represents the ability to design experiences that have real value for the people involved, improving the interaction between them and brands. This approach is based on a deep understanding of people’s needs, desires and behaviors, obtained through both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. The goal is to create digital ecosystems in which every element, from visual design to verbal tone of voice, contributes to a coherent and meaningful user experience.

The strategic push of social advertising

In channel management, social advertising plays a crucial role as an amplifier of the communication strategy, to ensure the brand has the best visibility on the target audience.

In fact, each adv campaign for Old Wild West integrates harmoniously into the online customer experience, also transforming advertising into an opportunity for connection and dialogue. The campaign management by the TSW team is therefore not limited to numerical performance, but becomes a strategic asset, which creates value for the brand and for the business.

Towards a future of shared experiences

This collaboration is just the beginning of a journey that aims to redefine communication in the food & beverage sector. Our aim is to create a digital environment where people are not passive spectators, but protagonists of a story lived together with Old Wild West.

In a landscape where attention is contested between a thousand stimuli, our challenge is to make every interaction more human, every message more authentic, every experience valuable. And together with Old Wild West, we are writing a new chapter in the narrative of food: a story in which everyone can find their place at the table, be it real or digital.