Button Up Media vs Savage Global Marketing: Hospitality Specialist or Generalist Agency?

Plenty of South Florida restaurants end up choosing between a specialist and a generalist, and this is that comparison. Savage Global Marketing is an established Fort Lauderdale creative and advertising agency that works across industries. We are Button Up Media, and we only work with restaurants, bars, breweries and cafes.

Since we are one of the two options here, take our conclusion with the appropriate grain of salt. What we can promise is that we are not going to make anything up. Every detail about Savage Global Marketing below comes from their own website as of September 2026, and it is linked so you can verify it.

Here is the honest framing. A good generalist agency can absolutely produce strong creative for a restaurant. The question is whether you want to pay for the part where they learn how your business actually works, and whether a restaurant is the kind of account their team is built around.

Button Up Media vs Savage Global Marketing at a glance

How the two line up on what restaurant owners ask about. The Savage Global Marketing details reflect their website as of September 2026.

• Industry focus: We work only with hospitality: restaurants, bars, breweries, cafes and coffee shops. Savage Global Marketing does not list specific focus industries on its homepage, and its named client examples span several sectors, including Taco Bell Cantina, Willis Custom Yachts and SR Technologies.
• Scale and history: They say they were founded in 2014 and have transformed over five hundred brands. We are a small, senior hospitality team, and our client list is restaurants and bars you can visit this weekend.
• Where the team sits: Their site lists an address at 515 E Las Olas Blvd in Fort Lauderdale and says the team is spread across six time zones. We are all in South Florida, which is how we get a camera into your restaurant on short notice.
• Services: They list advertising, social media management, web development, video production and a Content Van. We cover social content and short-form video, in-house photo and video, Google Business Profile and local SEO, websites built to take bookings and orders, and Google and Meta ads.
• Tools and process: They mention proprietary software called Lionshare for task management and collaboration. We keep it simpler: one primary goal, a monthly plan, and a plain-language report on bookings, calls and orders.
• Languages: We work in English and Spanish. Ask any agency what they support.
• Pricing: Neither of us publishes full pricing on the homepage. Their site points visitors to a pricing page, and we quote after a free call.

What Button Up Media does

Button Up Media is a South Florida agency that works with one industry: hospitality. Restaurants, bars, breweries, cafes and coffee shops. That is the entire client list, on purpose.

What that focus buys you is speed. We do not need three meetings to understand that your Tuesdays are quiet, that your patio photographs best at 6pm, that a two-week run of three-star reviews will cost you more than a bad ad, or that everything changes when season ends in April. We start at the part where we are fixing the problem.

The program covers four connected channels. Social content and short-form video shot in house in your space by our Creative Director. Google Business Profile and local SEO, so you appear in the map results when somebody nearby searches for what you serve. A website built to take a reservation or an order rather than win a design award. And paid ads on Google and Meta, aimed at people deciding where to eat tonight.

That approach has produced a 72 to 1 return on ad spend and more than 200 million organic views for local hospitality names including the Rusty Pelican, The Odyssey, Castaway and The Boathouse. See the work in our case studies. You work directly with the founders, Juan Hernandez and Christian Paula, in English or Spanish, and the monthly report is in plain language: bookings, calls, direction requests, orders.

What Savage Global Marketing does

Savage Global Marketing is a creative and advertising agency based at 515 E Las Olas Blvd in Fort Lauderdale. Its website lists advertising, social media management, web development, video production and a Content Van among its offerings.

The agency says it has been in business since 2014 and has successfully transformed over five hundred brands, and it describes itself as one of a select few among forty five thousand agencies worldwide that prioritize innovative technology. It mentions proprietary software called Lionshare for task management and collaboration, and describes its approach as collaborative: listening, understanding needs and providing solutions aligned to goals. Its team is described as spread across six time zones.

Named client examples on the site include Taco Bell Cantina, Willis Custom Yachts, SR Technologies and BBB. Restaurants and hospitality are not listed as a stated focus industry, although the Taco Bell Cantina work is restaurant work. Pricing is not shown on the homepage; visitors are directed to a pricing page.

Why we believe a hospitality specialist is the better hire

Generalist agencies exist for a good reason, and some of them do excellent creative. Here is where we think the specialist wins for a restaurant.

1. You are not paying for the learning curve

An agency that works across yachts, technology and food has to rebuild context for every client. We have run the same play through dozens of restaurants, which means we already know how to launch a new menu item, how to push a slow weeknight, how to handle a bad review during a Friday rush, and what a realistic first ninety days looks like for a restaurant rather than for a software company.

2. A local team beats a distributed one when the work is physical

Restaurant marketing has a physical component. Someone has to be in your kitchen with a camera while the dish is still steaming. Our team is in South Florida, so that is a same-week conversation. An agency whose team is spread across six time zones may be excellent at coordinating, but the camera still has to be in your dining room.

3. Restaurant metrics, not brand metrics

Big-brand marketing gets measured in reach, awareness and impressions. A restaurant gets measured in covers. We report on bookings, phone calls, direction requests and online orders, because those are the numbers that show up in your POS. If you talk to any generalist agency, ask them to define success in those terms and see how the conversation goes.

4. Bilingual by default, and founders on the account

In South Florida, a single-language program leaves out a huge share of your guests. We write, post, reply and advertise in English and Spanish. And you work with Juan and Christian directly rather than through an account layer, which matters when something needs to happen before service tonight.

Where Savage Global Marketing brings something different

To be fair, they bring things we do not, and you should know what they are.

They are an established agency with a longer corporate history, dating to 2014, and a much larger volume of brands worked with. They offer web development alongside advertising and video, they invest in their own internal technology, and their Content Van is a production asset most small agencies do not have. Working across many industries also means broad creative range, which some brands genuinely want.

If you are a hospitality group that also owns non-restaurant businesses, or you are looking for a big-production creative campaign rather than an ongoing engine for filling seats, a generalist creative agency is a reasonable conversation to have. If your problem is empty tables on a weeknight in South Florida, we believe the specialist is the better call.

Questions to ask both agencies before you sign

Ask both of us the same things and compare the answers honestly.

• How many restaurants do you currently work with? Not how many you have ever worked with. Current, and in my market.
• Who is on my account day to day, and where are they based? Time zones matter when you need something before dinner service.
• How often will someone be physically in my restaurant shooting? Get a number, in writing.
• Will you manage my Google Business Profile and reviews? For most restaurants this drives more covers than anything else, so find out who owns it.
• How do you define success in month three, in my numbers? Bookings, calls, orders. Not impressions.
• Do I own my accounts, content and data if we part ways? Everything should be in your name on your email.

Our longer guide to choosing a restaurant marketing agency in Miami lays out what a strong answer and a red-flag answer sound like for each question. It is worth reading before either call.

How to decide

Decide based on what kind of problem you have. If you want a broad creative and advertising partner across several businesses or industries, Savage Global Marketing is a legitimate agency to talk to, and their work speaks for itself. If you run a restaurant, bar, brewery or cafe in South Florida and you want a team that does nothing else, shoots in your space, works in both languages and reports in covers, that is exactly the company we built.

Book a free call with Button Up Media, hosted personally by our co-founder Juan. We will tell you what we would change first at your restaurant, whether or not you hire us. If you want to see the whole field first, our roundup of South Florida restaurant marketing agencies compares eight firms, including this one, and our guide to hiring a social media manager versus an agency covers the in-house option.

Frequently asked questions

Which is better for a restaurant, Button Up Media or Savage Global Marketing?

For a South Florida restaurant, bar or cafe, we believe Button Up Media is the better hire, because hospitality is the only industry we work in, our team is local and shoots in your restaurant, we work in English and Spanish, and we report in bookings, calls and orders. Savage Global Marketing is an established Fort Lauderdale creative and advertising agency founded in 2014 that works across industries and offers advertising, social, web development and video production, with a team spread across six time zones. If you need broad creative across several industries, they are a reasonable agency to talk to.

Does Savage Global Marketing specialize in restaurants?

Their website does not list restaurants or hospitality as a stated focus industry. Their named client examples span several sectors, including Taco Bell Cantina, Willis Custom Yachts and SR Technologies, so the Taco Bell Cantina work is restaurant work inside a broader industry mix. Button Up Media works only with hospitality businesses: restaurants, bars, breweries, cafes and coffee shops.

Where is each agency located?

Savage Global Marketing lists an address at 515 E Las Olas Blvd, Suite 120, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301, and says its team is spread across six time zones. Button Up Media is based in Miami, Florida, and our whole team works in South Florida, covering Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.

What is the difference between a restaurant specialist and a generalist marketing agency?

A hospitality specialist already understands covers, reviews, menu launches and seasonality on day one, so you are not paying for onboarding. A generalist brings broad creative range across many industries, which some brands want, but a restaurant usually needs someone who knows that a slow Tuesday, a three-star review streak and the end of season in April are all marketing problems with different answers.

What services does Savage Global Marketing offer?

According to its website, Savage Global Marketing offers advertising, social media management, web development, video production and a Content Van, and it mentions proprietary task-management software called Lionshare. Button Up Media covers social content and in-house photo and video, Google Business Profile and local SEO, websites built to take bookings and orders, and Google and Meta ads.

Does an agency need to be local to market my restaurant?

For most of the work, yes, and specifically for the part that involves a camera. Restaurant content works best when someone is physically in your kitchen and dining room on a regular schedule, and local teams also understand neighborhood-level demand, seasonality and language. If you consider a distributed team, ask exactly who will be in your restaurant each month and how often.

How do I get started with Button Up Media?

Book a free call at buttonupmedia.com/contact. We will ask about your restaurant, what is working and where you are stuck, then walk you through exactly how we would approach it. Every call is hosted personally by our co-founder Juan, in English or Spanish, with no long contract and no hard sell.

---

If this was useful and you would rather hand it off, book a free strategy call and we will build a plan around your specific restaurant.