Unless youre Jewish or grew up around New York City, chances are you have no idea what a knish is. You might occasionally catch one on a deli menu alongside your pastrami on rye or bagel and lox. And they do have their international “cousins: Latin Americans call them empanadas. East Indians call them samosas, even the Jamaican patty is part of the same crispy, potato goodness family.
So what is Knish, exactly? They’re are a centuries old european pastries, brought over in the early 1900’s by Jewish immigrants who came to North America from countries like Lithuania, Poland and Russia.
And why am I telling you about Knishes? Because last winter, we were excited to lead a rebranding and marketing campaign for Americas oldest and most famous knish companies, Gabila’s Knishes, makers of the classic Coney Island Square Knish. (Psst.. for the “unaknishiated”.. knishes are normally big and dome shaped. Gabilas are square and can be eaten like sandwiches).
Gabilas has been around since 1921, with its roots selling Knishes from food carts on the Lower East Side and at Brooklyn’s historic Coney Island Boardwalk. They still bake their knishes in the USA (in their factory in Copiague, NY), along with other traditional eastern european goodies like latkes and blintzes.
Their Challenge? How to bring this centuries old favorite snack into 2018, and introduce the knish to a whole new generation. In spite of being in business since 1921, Gabilas knishes were not as well known outside their core market in New York.
In addition to educating a new generation about knishes, Gabila needed to expand awareness, and bring knishes into the digital age.
Solution: Refresh the Knish!
In order to make this happen, Gabilas turned to napkin marketing to undertake their rebranding and social media effort, citing our strategic expertise, strength and passion for their business. Creating a new logo designed to honor the company’s heritage, napkin marketing also added a new tagline, “delivered fresh, right to your door”, emphasizing Gabila’s fresh product.
Food Styling and Food Photography/ Videography
Marketing food has always been about creating mouth watering content and photos. To signal the entrance of a new Gabila’s, we also produced knish related food photos and video content. napkin marketing organized a video and photo shoot for Gabilas. The production including chef demos, recipe building videos and food styled recipe photos where we prepared a variety of traditional and non traditional (knish burger or knish wings anyone?) knish recipes for food related content to share on social media.
napkin marketing also helped rebrand and revitalize Gabila’s website, Facebook and Twitter presence and launch new channels such as Gabila’s presence on Instagram and Youtube.
Scope of Work
- Brand Strategy
- Brand and Corporate Identity
- Go-to-market Strategy
- Media Strategy/ buying
- Creative Development/ Strategy
- Digital Strategy
- Social Media Advertising
- Social Media management
- Food styling and food photography
- Food video production
- Email marketing
What Our Clients Say:
Your brand and name are your company’s most important assets. We turned to napkin marketing to revitalize our company’s traditional brand and drive our new social media presence. From producing our video content, to managing a successful social media campaign to help launch our online channel, napkin marketing was able to come up with winning ideas and follow through with results. Creativity –great customer service– and deep understanding of our company and clientele are why we work with them. I highly recommend Adina and her team!
Robert Jioia
President, Gabilas Knishes
Need your own brand makeover?
napkin marketing offers affordable, professional marketing and web design services for businesses serious about their growth.
Get in touch with us to take your marketing to the next level.
Free Marketing Planning Calendar: Get your marketing year organized with this pro agency planning template, yours to download free.
Online and in-person, marketer Adina Zaiontz helps her clients tell their story, communicate their value, get in front of their target markets and grow their sales. Before starting napkin marketing, Adina gained 14 years experience in corporate marketing and web design, managing B2B and B2C marketing for companies like Yahoo!, Rogers Media, HP Canada and CIBC. Adina helps her clients create online marketing programs that get results.