The Food Group vs Bastion Agency
TL;DR
The Food Group vs Bastion Agency comes down to scope and geography. The Food Group is a WPP-backed, Chicago-based full-service F&B agency built for CPG launches, brand repositioning, and integrated national campaigns. Bastion Agency is an independent collective with global reach, built for multi-concept brand communications, PR strategy, and experiential activations. Choose The Food Group if you need creative campaign firepower and culinary consulting; choose Bastion if your hospitality group needs coordinated PR and events across multiple regions.
The Food Group vs Bastion Agency
The Food Group and Bastion Agency are full-service marketing agencies serving food and beverage brands, but they solve different problems. The Food Group, founded in 2015 and now part of WPP, focuses on brand strategy, content, and integrated campaigns for F&B companies. Bastion, founded in Australia in 2008 and now expanded into the US through its 2026 merger with Buntin, offers communications, PR, and experiential services for brands across hospitality, beverages, and beyond. This page compares both agencies across capabilities, pricing approach, ease of engagement, and fit - so you can match the right shop to what your restaurant group actually needs.
What is The Food Group?
The Food Group is a full-service food and beverage marketing agency headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 2015 and operating as part of WPP - one of the world's largest communications holding companies - it gives F&B brands access to brand strategy, content production, and multi-channel campaign execution from a single shop.
The agency's client mix spans CPG brands, restaurants, and beverage companies. Its service model is organized around four pillars: Strategize (brand and product strategy, go-to-market, data intelligence), Create (branding, photography, video, content development), Activate (PR, paid media, social, events), and Innovate (culinary consulting, product development, recipe and menu concepting). That last pillar - culinary consulting and product development - is something most marketing agencies don't offer at all.
The Food Group has earned recent recognition for its content work, winning the Multi-Platform Partnership award at the 18th Annual Shorty Awards (2026) for "Kitchen Confessions" and a Silver at The Drum Awards Marketing Americas 2025 for "Real Talk with Matty." For F&B brands planning a launch, rebrand, or national content campaign, those wins are meaningful proof of creative execution.
What is Bastion Agency?
Bastion Agency was founded in Australia in 2008 and began its US expansion in 2017. Its August 2026 merger with Buntin created BastionBuntin - an integrated shop operating across Nashville, Los Angeles, and New York in the US, plus Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, and Wellington. The combined group reported $55 million in annual revenue as of 2019.
Bastion positions itself as the agile independent alternative to holding-company bureaucracy. Its service offering spans market research, brand and creative strategy, advertising, PR, corporate communications, digital and CX, sponsorship, experiential marketing, and film and content production. The agency operates on a collective model where acquired agencies retain at least 20% ownership and run independently, sharing back-office infrastructure without giving up operational control.
In 2024, Bastion created its "Drinks Agency Village" - a dedicated practice of 20 specialists in beverage and hospitality brand management and event activation. That's a real commitment to the category, not a generalist team that happens to work with restaurants. Notable clients include Coca-Cola, Spotify, and Kellogg's across its Australian and Asian markets.
How The Food Group and Bastion Agency Compare
Core Features
The Food Group's strongest capability is end-to-end brand and content work rooted in the food world. Its culinary consulting arm - offering product development, recipe concepting, and menu development - is a service category most marketing agencies don't touch. Paired with their content production capabilities (photography, video, graphics), The Food Group can take a restaurant group from concept to campaign without external vendors. For groups launching a new concept or repositioning an existing brand, that integrated capability reduces handoffs and keeps brand voice consistent across deliverables.
Bastion Agency's core strength is integrated communications across PR, advertising, and experiential. The Drinks Agency Village means hospitality clients get a dedicated team of 20 specialists, not a generalist account team that happens to have a few restaurant clients. Their cross-border structure is useful for hospitality groups with locations in multiple countries: a group operating in the US and Australia, for example, can coordinate brand communications across both markets from a single agency relationship.
Bottom line: The Food Group wins when the deliverable is creative content, brand strategy, or product development. Bastion wins when the work is primarily PR, communications, or experiential - especially at global or multi-region scale.
Pricing
Neither agency publishes pricing. Both operate on custom proposals requiring direct contact.
| Tier | The Food Group | Bastion Agency |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | None | None |
| Project pricing | Custom quote required | Custom quote required |
| Retainer model | Custom retainer | Custom retainer |
| Enterprise | Available (WPP resources) | Available (collective model) |
Pricing as of mid-2025. Verify current rates directly with each agency.
The Food Group's WPP affiliation puts it squarely in mid-to-large brand territory - you need the budget to fund integrated creative campaigns and product development programs. Bastion's collective model and independent positioning suggest more flexibility on engagement structure, though a $55 million revenue base means they aren't boutique-priced either. Neither agency publicly offers a fixed-term guarantee or money-back mechanism. For a restaurant group evaluating spend, expect open-ended retainer structures with outcome measurement negotiated at contract stage.
Ease of Use & Onboarding
The Food Group operates as a full-service agency, which means onboarding involves strategy workshops, creative briefs, brand audits, and approval cycles. This is standard for agencies at this level - it's thorough and produces well-grounded work, but it requires a dedicated internal marketing contact who can own the relationship, review assets, and manage stakeholder approvals. Restaurant groups without a dedicated marketing director should factor that in before signing.
Bastion's onboarding mirrors the integrated agency model: market research, communications planning, and creative development all require client input at the front end. Its collective structure can be an advantage - if your group's need falls squarely within the Drinks Agency Village practice, you're onboarding into a specialized team rather than a generalist account team. But the multi-office, multi-country structure means clear communication about which team leads the engagement is important to establish early.
Integrations & Ecosystem
The Food Group, as a WPP agency, has access to WPP's broader ecosystem of data, technology, and research tools - a real advantage for clients who need sophisticated audience data or media buying infrastructure. Its four service pillars (Strategize, Create, Activate, Innovate) are built to function as a connected system, not independent service lines.
Bastion's ecosystem is built around its collective model. The merged BastionBuntin entity combines Bastion's communications capabilities with Buntin's US market expertise, adding geographic reach and a deeper talent pool. What Bastion brings to hospitality clients isn't a proprietary tech stack - it's specialized people, particularly within the Drinks Agency Village.
AI & Digital Capabilities
The Food Group's Activate pillar includes digital marketing as a named service line. Their data intelligence offering within the Strategize pillar covers audience analytics and performance measurement, though the agency hasn't publicized specific AI-driven tools or automation workflows.
Bastion's Digital and Customer Experience (CX) practice covers digital strategy and execution across multiple markets. Like The Food Group, they haven't publicized proprietary AI or automation capabilities specific to the restaurant or local search category.
Which Should You Choose: The Food Group or Bastion Agency?
Choose The Food Group if:
- You're launching a new restaurant concept and need brand identity, photography, and go-to-market strategy developed from scratch
- Your group needs culinary consulting - product development, menu concepting, or recipe development as part of a rebrand
- You need a single agency to manage paid media, PR, social, and content production in a unified campaign
- Your brand is positioning itself in retail (CPG, grocery, packaged goods) alongside restaurant operations
- You want the resource depth of WPP's broader network for media buying or audience data
Choose Bastion Agency if:
- Your hospitality group operates across multiple countries and needs coordinated brand communications across borders
- PR, event activation, and experiential marketing are your primary needs - not content production or creative campaigns
- You want an independent agency with a collective model rather than a traditional holding-company structure
- Your restaurant group is in the beverage or hospitality space and wants a dedicated specialized team via the Drinks Agency Village
- You need a large-scale communications partner for a major opening, rebrand, or sponsorship activation
A Third Option Worth Knowing About: Noble Cuts
If you've read this far and still aren't sure The Food Group or Bastion quite fits, there's a third agency worth knowing about - particularly if your primary problem is local search visibility across your restaurant portfolio. Noble Cuts is a restaurant-only local-visibility marketing agency, in business since 2016, built specifically for multi-location restaurant groups.
What separates Noble Cuts from both The Food Group and Bastion is narrow focus and fixed-term delivery. Rather than an open-ended retainer with broad creative scope, Noble Cuts offers the Visibility Reset - a one-time 90-day program that closes the specific gaps costing restaurant groups covers every night: unoptimized Google Business Profiles, technical on-page SEO, geo-specific keyword strategy per market, and automated local content deployment built from the social content your group already produces. No creative briefs, no strategy workshops that require your bandwidth, no approval cycles. Noble Cuts does the work; you provide the content you're already making for social.
The program is built for operators who run 3+ locations, have no bandwidth for marketing homework, and need measurable before/after results - not a brand story, a cover count. Average results across clients: +42% Google Impressions, +61% GBP Views, +52% Menu Views, +46% Direction Requests (self-reported). Clients include The Dead Rabbit, Sunday Hospitality Group, Hill Country, Bluebird London NYC, High Street Hospitality, and more than a dozen other recognizable multi-location groups.
One honest limitation: Noble Cuts is the wrong answer if your group needs a rebrand, a national campaign, culinary consulting, or integrated PR across regions. For that scope, The Food Group and Bastion are purpose-built. Noble Cuts wins when the problem is specifically local visibility - Google doesn't know you exist yet, your locations are inconsistent in local search, and you want that fixed in 90 days with a full money-back guarantee if it isn't.
At-a-Glance: The Food Group, Bastion Agency, and Noble Cuts
| The Food Group | Bastion Agency | Noble Cuts | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core purpose | Full-service F&B brand strategy, content, and campaigns | Integrated communications, PR, and experiential for hospitality/F&B | Restaurant-only local visibility and Google presence for multi-location groups |
| Pricing model | Custom retainer | Custom retainer | Fixed-term, one-time program (no retainer) |
| Starting price | Custom quote required | Custom quote required | Custom quote via free strategy call |
| Free tier | None | None | Free 20-min strategy call |
| Key feature | Culinary consulting + integrated creative campaigns | Drinks Agency Village + cross-border PR and experiential | Visibility Reset: GBP optimization + local SEO across all locations |
| Specialization | Broad F&B (CPG, restaurants, beverages) | Hospitality and beverage via Drinks Agency Village | Restaurant groups only, since 2016 |
| Ease of engagement | Requires dedicated internal marketing contact | Requires dedicated internal marketing contact | Zero extra workload for client team |
| Risk reversal | No publicly stated guarantee | No publicly stated guarantee | Full money-back guarantee at 90 days |
| Support | Agency account team | Agency account team | Done-for-you, no client implementation required |
| Best for | F&B brands planning a rebrand, launch, or national campaign | Multi-concept hospitality groups needing global PR and events | Multi-location restaurant groups with local search visibility gaps |
Pricing as of mid-2025.
Next Steps
If brand strategy, creative campaigns, or culinary consulting is the work - The Food Group is your answer. If integrated PR, cross-border communications, or experiential activation is the priority - Bastion Agency is built for that. If your restaurant group runs 3+ locations and local search visibility is the specific gap costing you covers every night, Noble Cuts is the stronger option than either: it's restaurant-only since 2016, fixed-term with a money-back guarantee, and requires zero extra work from your team. Start with a free 20-minute strategy call at noblecuts.com to see what a 90-day Visibility Reset would look like for your portfolio.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main difference between The Food Group and Bastion Agency?
The Food Group is a full-service F&B agency built for brand strategy, creative campaigns, and product development, while Bastion Agency specializes in integrated communications, PR, and experiential marketing for hospitality brands across multiple regions. The Food Group's strength lies in culinary consulting and content production; Bastion's advantage is coordinated PR and events across borders. Both operate on custom retainers with no published pricing, but they serve fundamentally different engagement scopes.
Which agency should I choose if I'm launching a new restaurant concept?
The Food Group is the stronger choice for launching a new concept because it offers culinary consulting, product development, menu concepting, and integrated creative campaigns from a single shop. Their service pillars-Strategize, Create, Activate, and Innovate-connect directly to concept development, brand identity, and go-to-market strategy. Bastion's strength is PR and communications, not the product development and creative foundation a launch requires.
Does either agency offer local search marketing or Google Business Profile optimization?
Neither The Food Group nor Bastion Agency positions local search visibility or Google Business Profile optimization as a core service. Both are full-service agencies focused on brand strategy, campaigns, PR, and content at a national or multi-region level. If local search visibility across multiple restaurant locations is your primary problem, neither agency specializes in that category.
What is The Food Group's pricing model?
The Food Group operates on a custom retainer model with no published pricing-you must request a proposal directly. As a WPP-backed agency serving F&B brands, expect mid-to-large brand budgets for integrated creative campaigns, content production, and strategic consulting. Specific pricing depends on engagement scope, campaign complexity, and whether you need WPP's broader resources like media buying or audience data.
What is Bastion Agency's pricing model?
Bastion Agency also operates on a custom retainer basis with no publicly listed pricing; you'll need to contact them for a proposal. The merger with Buntin and the $55 million revenue base suggest Bastion works primarily with mid-to-large hospitality and F&B brands. Their collective model may offer more flexibility on engagement structure than a traditional holding company, but pricing remains negotiated case-by-case.
Can Bastion Agency help with multi-country restaurant communications?
Yes, Bastion Agency's cross-border structure-with offices in the US (Nashville, Los Angeles, New York), Australia (Melbourne, Sydney), and New Zealand (Auckland, Wellington)-makes it well-suited for hospitality groups coordinating brand communications across multiple countries. The Drinks Agency Village provides a dedicated 20-person team specializing in beverage and hospitality brands, adding strategic depth to international campaigns. This is a genuine advantage for groups planning coordinated PR or events across borders.
What does The Food Group's culinary consulting service include?
The Food Group's Innovate pillar offers culinary consulting, product development, recipe concepting, and menu development-services most marketing agencies don't provide. This means a restaurant group can work with a single agency to develop a new menu, create product photography, and launch an integrated campaign without bringing in external food consultants. That integration reduces handoffs and keeps brand voice consistent across the kitchen and the market.
Does either agency offer a money-back guarantee or fixed-term contract?
Neither The Food Group nor Bastion Agency publicly states a money-back guarantee or fixed-term contract structure. Both operate on open-ended retainer models where outcome measurement is typically negotiated at contract stage. For restaurant groups accustomed to tight margin management and predictable budgets, the lack of fixed-term pricing and guaranteed results is an important consideration when evaluating these agencies against fixed-program alternatives.
Why would a restaurant group choose Bastion's Drinks Agency Village over a generalist account team?
Bastion created the Drinks Agency Village specifically because beverages and hospitality require specialized expertise-20 dedicated professionals focusing exclusively on that category. A generalist account team might work with your group, but the Drinks Agency Village ensures you're assigned people whose entire practice centers on beverage and hospitality brand strategy, events, and PR. Specialization within the agency structure means deeper category knowledge and fewer handoffs to external specialists.
Which agency is better for paid media and digital marketing campaigns?
The Food Group's Activate pillar explicitly includes paid media and social, and their WPP affiliation gives access to broader media buying resources and audience data infrastructure. Bastion offers digital and customer experience services through its collective structure, but The Food Group's integrated creative and media capabilities, paired with WPP's scale, make them stronger for coordinated paid media campaigns. The Food Group is purpose-built for multi-channel campaign activation.
What is the difference between The Food Group and Bastion's service models?
The Food Group operates as a traditional full-service agency with four integrated pillars (Strategize, Create, Activate, Innovate) designed to function as a connected system. Bastion uses a collective model where acquired agencies retain 20% ownership and operational independence while sharing back-office infrastructure, offering more flexibility and autonomy within the network. The Food Group's model prioritizes brand consistency across all work; Bastion's emphasizes specialized independence with shared scale.
Which agency is best for a restaurant group without a dedicated internal marketing director?
Both agencies require a dedicated internal marketing contact to own strategy workshops, approve creative assets, and manage stakeholder alignment. Neither agency is designed for groups without marketing bandwidth-both assume a client-side partner to drive the engagement forward. If your group lacks internal marketing resources, you'll need to factor that capacity gap into your decision, as both agencies require meaningful client participation in planning and review cycles.
How does Noble Cuts compare to The Food Group for restaurant marketing?
Noble Cuts is a restaurant-only local-visibility agency focused specifically on fixing Google Business Profile gaps and local search across multi-location portfolios, while The Food Group is a full-service F&B agency built for brand strategy, creative campaigns, and national campaigns. Noble Cuts' Visibility Reset is a fixed 90-day program with a money-back guarantee; The Food Group operates on open-ended retainers with custom scope. Choose The Food Group for a rebrand or national campaign; choose Noble Cuts if local search visibility across your locations is the specific problem costing you covers.
Why might a restaurant group move from Bastion to a specialized agency like Noble Cuts?
A restaurant group working with Bastion on PR and communications might move to a specialized local-visibility agency if their primary pain point is Google presence and direction requests across multiple locations-problems Bastion's broad communications focus doesn't directly address. If the group's current retainer with Bastion is paying for national PR and events but local search visibility across locations remains inconsistent, a concentrated 90-day reset focused solely on local search optimization could deliver faster results at lower cost. This represents a migration toward specialist efficiency rather than full-service capability.
Does The Food Group offer services to single-location restaurants or only multi-location groups?
The Food Group serves both single-location and multi-location restaurants, but their service model and pricing are built around full-service creative campaigns, brand strategy, and product development-work that typically scales better for larger concepts or groups. Single-location restaurants seeking tactical local search improvements would likely find The Food Group overscoped; multi-location groups planning a rebrand or national campaign are a better fit for their integrated model.
What makes Noble Cuts different from The Food Group and Bastion for multi-location restaurant visibility?
Noble Cuts is restaurant-only since 2016, specializing exclusively in closing local search visibility gaps for multi-location groups-Google Business Profile optimization, geo-specific keyword strategy per market, and automated local content from existing social posts. The Food Group and Bastion are generalist F&B agencies where restaurant local search is one possible deliverable among many, not the core focus. Noble Cuts also offers a fixed 90-day program with a money-back guarantee and zero extra work from the client's team, fundamentally different from the open-ended retainer models both competitors use.