Case study · Chef & restaurant · Stoke-on-Trent

Cris Cohen

Cris Cohen is the award-winning chef behind HIDDEN in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. We turned a restaurant website into a personal brand on Shopify, with new ways to buy, automated email and social channels that finally match.

Visit the site

Services: Brand direction, Shopify build, email, social
Platform: Squarespace → Shopify
Location: Longton, Stoke-on-Trent
Sector: Food & hospitality

1

Brand: the chef himself, now at criscohen.co.uk

5

Ways to buy online, from dining tickets to gift vouchers

4

Channels tidied and rebranded: Facebook, Instagram, Google and YouTube

The brief

The chef is the brand.

Cris Cohen is an award-winning chef and the man behind HIDDEN, a studio kitchen and cafe bar at Sutherland Works in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. His website lived at hidden.co.uk, but he'd run more than one restaurant over the years, so his brands were tied to venues rather than the person.

Talking it through, we agreed that people come for Cris: well spoken, passionate, charming and a very good chef. So the new site puts him front and centre, with HIDDEN as one part of his story.

What was holding it back

01
Tied to one venue
The website and name belonged to HIDDEN, not to the chef people actually follow.
02
Built for one restaurant
The previous site ran on Squarespace, alongside Google Workspace, and was set up around a single venue.
03
Channels out of step
Several Facebook pages, Instagram accounts, Google Business Profiles and YouTube channels, with mismatched branding and outdated information.

What we did

01
Brand direction
Agreed with Cris to build the brand around him, with HIDDEN as one part of his story rather than the whole of it.
02
A new Shopify site
Moved from Squarespace to a new Shopify site at criscohen.co.uk, with stories, people, a gallery and private bookings.
03
Products to test
Set up different products and services to test online, from seasonal dining tickets and mystery meal boxes to an annual membership and gift vouchers.
04
Email flows
Automated email flows, so subscribers and customers hear from Cris without him having to remember to send anything.
05
Social, sorted
Tidied up and rebranded his Facebook, Instagram, Google Business Profile and YouTube channels so everything matches and is up to date.
06
Handing over the mic
Managed some of his social posts at the start, then Cris took the lead once everything was up and running.