Expansion and strengthening local communities are all-day café Social's key focus areas

All- day café Social has stood true to its name and has bridged the gap for people to find a working space, cafe and bar under one roof. In conversation with BestMediaInfo.com, Divya Aggarwal, Head of Marketing, Impresario Handmade Restaurants, speaks about what Social wishes to achieve with its future campaigns.

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Talking about the restaurant chain’s marketing plan, Aggarwal says they will focus on expansion in newer cities and locations as well as strengthening hyper-local communities around their outlets through its campaigns.

“We have been on a launch-spree for the last few months; we have been opening new outlets in newer cities and in newer localities. That’s what our brand philosophy is. Social is our flagship brand that is meant for extension. Currently, we have 30 Social outlets. Recently we expanded to a new city, Chennai. In the coming few months we plan to expand in newer cities, which may be tier one or two cities.”

“We want to ensure that we create powerful pieces of communication from the essence of the brand. We also wish to do more meaningful campaigns that are more regional because like I said we wish to expand in newer cities and locations. Social is the fastest growing brand under the Impresario Handmade Group and it will be the face of expansion for us when we reach newer cities and newer audiences. We want everyone to experience Social because it is such a great brand,” she added.

Talking about what the local community means to the brand, Aggarwal said, “An important aspect of our brand is the community building that we do. Whenever we open a store, we look at the hyper-local community. That’s the community we build and give back to. It’s a very important part of what Social is as a brand and that’s how we are able to take it to many more locations and cities. You have these common elements but you still work on the hyper-local elements everywhere. This is unique about the brand and that has given it the stature it has.”

On this note, the brand launched its Women’s Day campaign around safety, inclusivity and opportunity. The 360-degree campaign titled ‘S(#stree)CIAL’, the brand organised panel discussions, live art demos and awareness events around Women’s Day at select outposts in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore on March 8. The brand also collaborated with other brands such as MTV and LXME. The company signed a year-long partnership with the not-for-profit organisation One Future Collective, to create company-wide policy changes and new trainings on sexual harassment in the workplace, gender sensitisation as well as gender diversity and inclusion with empathy and heart at its core.

Riyaaz Amlani, MD and CEO, Impresario Handmade Restaurants, said, “We have internalised the core pillars of safety, inclusivity, and opportunity at a company-wide level. Since January 2020, we have been working actively to make our spaces safer, more inclusive and employment-friendly for women. I hope this gives impetus to other brands in the Indian F&B industry to follow suit.”

Talking about the channels they will be using for their campaign, Aggarwal said it will be a mixture of digital, on-ground and PR. “Since we don’t have very traditional consumers, our target group are millennials, who are creative and outspoken. That is the kind of space we have created. What we do is carry well thought-out and creative campaigns. What we are trying to do here is a 360-degree campaign that speaks not only on digital but also on PR and on ground.”

Aggarwal said the brand generates user-generated content around such campaigns. “For us, communication is about being true to who we are, and that’s the space in which we communicate. Like in the past, on Valentine’s Day, given whatever was happening in the country, our hashtag was ‘all we need is love’. We celebrated Valentine’s Day with art and music, we modified our menu accordingly. A lot of artists created artworks around the theme and we received a lot of user-generated content around it,” she said.

Aggarwal said the brand is dedicated towards bringing differentiated offerings for people to experience. “The IPL is just around the corner. It is not only about watching a match at a restaurant, but how do you give them a menu around that, how do you give an ambience to them which is in sync with the theme. It’s about how you can customise your brand and your brand’s offerings,” she said.

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