Hotel Chocolat US Cafe' Launch: Chicago
With just 90 days to launch, Hotel Chocolat—the beloved British chocolatier—enlisted our agency to launch its first U.S. café-style retail locations in Chicago’s Lincoln Park and Lakeview neighborhoods. With limited budget, minimal lead time, and two storefronts opening simultaneously, the challenge demanded speed, strategy, and precision. Our goal was to create meaningful awareness, generate foot traffic, and establish Hotel Chocolat as a standout in a competitive retail and culinary landscape.
We developed a high-impact, earned-first campaign designed to maximize reach and resonance through smart storytelling, targeted media outreach, and strategic influencer engagement. We highlighted the brand’s unique position at the intersection of luxury gifting and experiential food culture executing immersive elements that set the café apart: the signature “Wall of Chocolate,” hot chocolate served via Velvetiser, liquid chocolate on tap, and highlighted their café counter featuring locally sourced pastries and beverages from Publican Quality Bread, Metric Coffee, and Spirit Tea.
We executed a press and influencer launch event at the Lincoln Park location- for which we secured Anna Redman and Chris Bukowski (of Bachelor Nation) to further relevancy and awareness. We leveraged our national and regional media relationships to secure attendance and coverage from major consumer, lifestyle, and trade outlets, including WGN News, ABC Chicago, Chicago Tribune, Time Out Chicago, Eater Chicago, US Weekly, OK! Magazine, Page Six, Radar Online, BizJournals, Food Dive, and Axios. The team also secured raves and piqued long term interest with Apartment Therapy, Business Insider, People, Nation’s Restaurant News, and Chicago Magazine, among others. Combined earned media placements resulted in over 70 million impressions in the first few days, with coverage highlighting not only the product experience but also the unique café format and its appeal to the U.S. market.
Concurrently we activated a powerful influencer presence at the event. Notables including Anna Redman and Chris Bukowski (of Bachelor Nation), @joeeatsworld, @jogrange, @inspiringkitchen, and others created content highlighting their experience. Their posts reached more than 250,000 combined followers, with multiple stories, in-feed posts, and brand tags. The city’s official tourism account, Explore Chicago, also featured the event with a Reel that earned over 3,000 likes and nearly 4,000 shares.
Despite a tight timeline and constrained resources, our campaign delivered a high-visibility U.S. debut for Hotel Chocolat, capturing consumer attention, earning editorial authority, and building a rich content foundation to support future brand growth in the American market. The launch demonstrated our ability to move quickly and effectively—amplifying brand moments through meaningful relationships, engaging tactics and partnerships,
