Launching Dishoom: From One City of A Thousand Trades to Another

Dishoom launch birmingham | chai latte in brown cup

Challenge

How do you bring a well-established brand into the centre of Birmingham and still make it the most loved, most talked about, most visited new opening in the city? Well, grab a chai, get comfy and we’ll tell you.

With restaurants already located in London, Manchester and Edinburgh, it’s fair to say there was a buzz around the new Dishoom arriving in Birmingham, Spring 2020. With each Dishoom restaurant having its own unique story, their narrative for the new location encapsulated Birmingham’s history as the “city of a thousand trades”, paralleled with the markets of Bombay.

Yet despite the brand resonating with Birmingham’s past, we needed to get Dishoom ready for Birmingham’s future.

“Naan” of the Big Cat team would be stepping down on this challenge!

Turning Instinct into Action

The old adage “community is key” springs to mind for this campaign. We rolled up our PR and communications sleeves and set about creating networks for Dishoom to bring them into the Birmingham fold.

Social Proof played a role in planning. Not only did we create extensive media lists for the releases pre-launch, we also made the PR Manager the face of Dishoom’s media with meetings to which everyone wanted to be invited (not least because of the free cookbook!). Whether media, marketing or industry, EVERYONE in Birmingham knew Dishoom was set to arrive that Spring.

But that’s not all. We also set-up an exclusive London-based press event that walked guests through the design, food and stories of Dishoom. This event was followed by a press drop with a free cookbook, a sneak peek and a design tour. Together, social proof and exclusivity really gave this campaign some “PAU!” (OK, we’ll stop… maybe).

Whilst we had plans for a launch party, Captain’s Tables and setting-up reviews, the world had other ideas. When restrictions started to lift in the autumn of 2020, we helped spread the word once again to Birmingham and national press who attended in their droves!

We are delighted to see how Dishoom Birmingham has flourished despite the circumstances of their launch and were glad to help such a thoughtful brand.

We were so excited to help bring Dishoom to Birmingham!...

“I love everything about the Dishoom brand: the myths, the attention to detail, the food (obviously), the breakfast Naans, the interior design, the locations; so being invited to pitch was literally a dream come true. Once we won the pitch and started working with the team and Dishoom, the reason why they’re so successful became apparent. I’ve worked with and launched a LOT of restaurants and bars in my time. These guys are good. Damn good. And the Birmingham restaurant location! Literally the best view in the city!!!”