56 Custom Plates. Four Days. Here's Exactly How It Happened.
On Sunday 13th April we received a brief. 56 custom branded enamel plates and slate tablemats, needed for a dinner event in London. Just four days later they were on the tables at The Fast Supper — Underground Fan Club's collaboration with New Balance and SportsShoes during London Marathon week. This is what happened in between — and after. The event Twenty female runners. Carefully chosen — not by follower...
The Psychology of Why People Photograph Their Food — And What It Means for Your Brand
Every day, approximately 1.8 billion photographs are taken worldwide. A significant and growing proportion of them are of food. Not landscapes. Not portraits. Food. Specifically — and this is the part worth paying attention to if you run a restaurant, café or hospitality business — food in a specific setting, on a specific surface, in a specific vessel, at a specific moment. The photograph is never really about the food....
The Cheapest Way to Make Your Hospitality Business Look More Premium
Premium is not a budget. It's a perception. And perception is built from details — small, considered, consistent details that together create a feeling in a customer's mind that this place is worth more than the price they paid for it. The hospitality businesses that feel premium aren't always the ones that spent the most. They're the ones that spent deliberately. That understood which details customers actually notice, which ones...
How Independent Cafés Can Compete With Coffee Chains on Brand
Costa has a £38 million marketing budget. You have a espresso machine, six tables, and a chalkboard outside that needs updating when it rains. And yet — there are independent cafés in every city in the UK that are busier, better reviewed and more talked-about than the chain three doors down. Not despite their size. Because of it. The chains have money. But money buys reach, not authenticity. And authenticity...
How to Get More 5-Star Reviews for Your Restaurant or Café
Most restaurant owners think about reviews after the fact. A customer leaves, the meal is done, and somewhere in the following 48 hours they either open Google and type something — or they don't. What very few owners realise is that the decision to leave a review isn't made after the meal. It's made during it. In the small moments where something either surprised them, moved them, or made them...
Why Your Café Doesn't Get Tagged on Instagram — And the Simple Fix
If you've ever posted your café's food on Instagram and wondered why your customers aren't doing the same, this is the post for you. Because here's the thing nobody in the coffee industry says out loud: the cafés with the biggest Instagram presence aren't necessarily serving the best coffee. They're serving the most photographable experience. And there's a difference — one that has nothing to do with your beans, your...
Custom Branded Mugs With No Minimum Order — What to Know Before You Buy
There's a moment every café owner, restaurant manager and small business has at some point. You find a supplier. The mugs look perfect. The branding options are exactly what you imagined. You go to the order page — and there it is. Minimum order: 250 units. Sometimes 500. Occasionally, almost insultingly, 1,000. You close the tab. It happens thousands of times a day across the UK. Small businesses, new openings,...
The £4 Difference Between a Food Van People Remember and One They Walk Past
Two food vans. Same festival. Same field. Same footfall walking past both of them all day. One of them has a queue. The other doesn't. The food is equally good. The prices are similar. The staff at both are friendly. So why is one van turning people away and the other is watching the crowd walk by? It's not the menu board. It's not the social media following. It's not...
