Launching into a new food market is a big enough challenge, let alone in London’s fiercely competitive culinary scene. The second challenge for Italian street food brand Indegno was to build an engaged audience from scratch - and that’s where we came in. 

Wanting to create a loyal community of food lovers and a buzz about its award-winning brand, Indegno asked us to supercharge its fast-casual dining concept as it branched out with a base in Shoreditch. Originating in Bologna, it was the company’s first foray into the UK market. 

Although extremely popular back home in its three venues, where consumers adore its trademark crescentinas - golden pockets of deep-fried bread dough stuffed with delicious fillings - there was no guarantee that British audiences would feel the same. 

With our research highlighting that more than 2,000 restaurants in London offered Italian cuisine, we needed to drive awareness and establish Indegno as a must-visit destination that would stand out from the crowd - and keep customers coming back for more. We quickly identified the key consumer groups we needed to target to build the brand’s credibility to a new audience. 

We researched the local market, noting the number of Italian food offerings and other take-away options in Shoreditch and used census figures to discover the age groups and occupations of the local community. We also discovered that no UK venues offered crescentinas - vital to our central message. 

Our marketing, PR and social media teams set to work on the restaurant’s launch, creating eye-catching online posts and driving interest through impactful press coverage about the brand and its tasty food.

We secured a delicious 65 pieces of press coverage across the six-month period, in major national and consumer publications such as the Telegraph, Evening Standard, Time Out, BBC Radio London and Secret London, one of the biggest tourism media brands in the capital. We secured a 38m audience reach, 507K views and 16 backlinks. 

We knew we had to create an authentic online community that reflected Indegno’s fun personality and energy. With no established UK audience, every follower, interaction and piece of engagement had to be earned. 

Strategic influencer collaborations further extended the brand’s reach, with over 25 influencers visiting the restaurant over the course of six months. Key collaborations included @loulouexplores (427K followers), @theitalianfoodaholic (146K followers) and @pistachioinlondon (98.9K followers).

Keen to harness the power of in-person activations, we also organised two influencer events to create maximum buzz – the first of which was a launch party for East London’s hottest foodies, the second was a supper club that gave top influencers a chance to taste new menu additions and choose which cresecentina would feature on the menu next. 

As London food and beverage sector specialists, we used our wide knowledge of the industry and social media expertise to reach the food lovers we’d targeted. 

We kicked off our partnership with an in-depth brand workshop with the Indegno team to establish its brand position in the market, its tone of voice and key messaging for UK customers. 

Our campaign stretched across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, using high-quality content to make our target foodies tick with an array of striking images and videos featuring mouthwatering dishes. 

Over a six-month period, we created a dynamic social media strategy, prioritising consistent and regular posting in line with a newly-developed suite of social graphics that all helped build genuine conversations.  

The team also maximised on videography and content creation days as well as event coverage, to support the creation of a diverse range of organic content. A strong focus on unique Instagram reels and TikTok videos to communicate and translate the brand was supported by frequent in-platform community engagement sessions to maintain an interactive relationship with the audience.

Our strategy gave Indegno an impressive start to its new London life, introducing the brand to thousands of food lovers. With our strategic content plan, community management and creator partnerships, we transformed a newly-launched venue into a recognisable social brand with a growing, engaged community. The campaign significantly outperformed the original objectives and drove meaningful engagement: