SMC Creative House · Szechuan hotpot restaurant
Social media manager · Aug to Oct 2025
✦ The why
Beautiful food earns a pause. People earn a follow.
262K
views on the breakout video
~100x
their average organic reach of 2,644 views
#1
their highest performing post, within days
✦ The full story
The second SMC client, with the same weekly rhythm: research, creative deck, client walkthrough, filming on location, editor briefs.
The problem
Most restaurant content shows the food. Theirs did too, and the food photographed beautifully. But beautiful food is everywhere on a feed, and it gives you no reason to care about the people behind it or to pick this spot over the one next door.
The idea
Give the place a personality. Build the content around the team, the owner, and the energy of actually being in the room, so following the account feels like knowing the place.
The execution
The series put faces on the restaurant: the staff, the owner, the warmth and chaos of a full table. The breakout video was built on a moment most people recognize: eating with someone who has never had hotpot. I directed and edited this one, adapting the concept on set when a better version of the idea showed up.
The content
A case study built around people, not just plates.
Personality series
Clips that put faces on the restaurant: the staff, the owner, and the energy in the room.
The breakout video
Eating with someone who has never had hotpot. Directed and edited by me.
262K views, about 100× the account’s average organic reach.
Behind the scenes
Photos
On-set images of directing the hotpot video and working the room with the team.
On set
4:5
Directing
1:1
With the team
4:5
The results
The video became the restaurant’s highest performing post within days of publishing. It captured something people already knew was funny and let them see themselves in it.
Strategy built to evolve. ✦
Ember Beckary · Social Media Strategist