Hotel Chocolat

On-Going Consultancy 

For Hotel Chocolat we worked to craft and implement a fresh, innovative social media strategy that not only reinforced their key messages but also solidified their position as the most beloved brand and premier destination for luxury chocolate products.

To achieve this, we adopted a trend-first, hyper-reactive approach through Truffle’s dynamic process. This allowed us to stay agile and responsive to real-time shifts, ensuring that Hotel Chocolat remains at the forefront of trends and continues to secure its status as a leading, trend-setting chocolate manufacturer.

We have positioned ourselves as an integral extension of Hotel Chocolat’s team. As their social media partner, we act as their eyes and ears, providing a reliable sounding board for new concepts and ideas. This close collaboration ensures that our strategies are perfectly aligned with the brand's vision and goals, fostering a seamless partnership that continues to drive success and growth not only over the past year but for years to come.

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Setting the Scene

• Monthly Brainstorms and Caption Recommendations: We conducted 1.5-hour monthly brainstorming sessions with the Hotel Chocolat team to develop content ideas and provide caption and copy recommendations, focusing on the development of user-generated content (UGC) as a centric approach informed by social trends and performance insight.

• Platform Integration Guidance and Weekly Updates: We provided continuous updates on platform integration tools and sent weekly emails with platform and industry updates, ensuring Hotel Chocolat stayed ahead of trends and maximized reach and engagement through a data-driven strategy.

• Quarterly Training Sessions: Every three months, we hosted 3-hour in-person training sessions to enhance the team's understanding of social media strategies and tools, supporting the shift towards more UGC-focused, reactive and trending content.

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The Execution

Optimised Social Media Strategy

Content Pillars, Tone of Voice, Audience Segmentation, Hero Campaigns, Social Audit, Competitor Analysis and Always on Creatives. 

Creative Consultants

Weekly concept and content development, Analytical support and analysis, Ideation and Trend Search, Optimisation, Reactive solutions, Monthly brainstorms for seasonal and always on led campaigns, Internal Training Sessions, Market Research. 

Influencer Marketing 

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The Brief

The launch and consistent execution of creator campaigns across TikTok for Hotel Chocolat. Establishing a rapport with creators on the platform as well as enhancing our brand awareness with a new, wider audience.

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The Activity

• Full end to end management of creator campaigns across different seasonal execution key periods 
• Source and vet creators 
• Outreach, negotiate and contract 
• Conceptualize a creative brief per creator 
• Achieve core KPIs per creator and across each campaign 
• Maintain strong relationships with creators and talent agencies 
• Approve and develop concepts and content for each creator 
• Observe a timeline is met to achieve optimum results 
• Paid boosting where applicable and required

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The Results

The results over 2024/2025 (so far) campaigns: 

• 10 Campaigns during 2024 / 2025 
• 29 Creator partnerships 
• 785,756 Organic Views (exc x2 of the campaigns listed above, as only about to go live)
• 182,780 Engagements (exc x2 of the campaigns listed above, as only about to go live)

AI Content

What We Did

As part of a Hotel Chocolat’s Christmas campaign, Truffle was tasked with bringing the brand’s campaign - The Imaginarium - to life on social. Capturing the magic that chocolate can bring to the holidays, we tasked a CGI designer to animate the brand’s flagship Regents Street store into a reality-meets-fantasy Imaginarium - place where creativity blends with craftsmanship for a truly imaginative chocolate experience!

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The Activity

• Souring, briefing CGI designer 
• Handling all aspects of the creative feedback process and approvals
• Resulting in two creative executions, including the CGI creative and a BTS video
• Content was shared to Instagram and TikTok and was used as part of the brand’s paid media creative.