Chocolate. Where would we be without it? When we first taste it as children, it’s love at first bite. As adults, we still get excited when we reach for our favorite chocolate from the box or sink our teeth into the gooey center of a just-baked brownie.
That’s probably why, every July 7th, people from across the globe give this foodie delight the celebration it so richly deserves. If you run a shop, café, restaurant or any other type of biz, and want to join in by paying homage to all things chocolate, this is your time to shine like the glossiest ganache.
In this one-stop guide, we’ll talk you through how to make standout content that will have your customers’ mouths watering. Here are seven pieces of inspiration – from menu and social media ideas to poster-ready chocolate quotes.
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1 - Craft a special World Chocolate Day menu.
When it comes to putting together your World Chocolate Day menu, it’s tempting to go all-in with candy bars to cross the T’s, and chocolate chips to dot the I’s.
But clarity is everything in menu design. Even if you sell the most dazzling cookie dough freakshakes under the sun, it’s always a good idea to pare back your menu. Less really can be more.
Here are a few tips:
- Go with the flow. Layout and readability are key to a good menu. Keep your sections clear and guide your readers intuitively from inventive appetizers to dessert.
- Find the right fonts. A range of different but complementary fonts will look great and keep the details crystal clear. Think dish in bold, a description in italics, and dietary information in a separate font. This can help your customers easily read and scan the page.
- Describe your dishes. Engaging titles and clear descriptions are crucial here. Keep things succinct, but let your customers know exactly what they’re ordering. Most importantly, ensure your summaries are super enticing and mouth-watering.
- Don’t overdo the imagery. Pictures are essential to creating an eye-catching look, but you shouldn’t clutter your menu with too many photos, illustrations, and icons. If you’re using photos, it’s best to make them broadly representative of your best dishes, rather than illustrate each and every item. You could also use icons to demonstrate dietary information. A simple logo and some well-chosen visuals can really help cement your brand voice. Then, let the text do the talking.
- Give it some space. Whatever way you choose to present your menu, remember that blank space is your friend. In fact, studies have shown that clear space around the margins can increase comprehension by almost 20%.
Ready to make your menu? Browse and easily edit thousands of stunning free templates with Adobe Express.
2 - Whip up some chocolatey recipes.
One of the best things about chocolate (and there are a lot) is its versatility. You can pack so much into a cake that you’d make Homer Simpson blush. But you can also use it sparingly to add subtle depth to low-and-slow barbecue dishes, or even combine it with tomatillos, chilies, nuts, and sesame seeds for an authentic Mexican mole.
If you’ve got a killer recipe and want to share it for World Chocolate Day, then here are a few ways to do it:
- Recipe cards. Include mouthwatering visuals, an ingredients list, and a clear step-by-step guide on how to get there. Drag your photos, branding, and fonts in just a few taps and share it in a flash with Adobe Express.
- Recipe blogs. These are the long-form version of your recipe card, where you can go into greater detail about what the recipe means to you and how you made it. Our amazing blog templates help you balance awesome visuals with great writing to make a stand-out piece of content.
- Recipe videos. According to Animoto, 93% of brands have gained new customers through social media videos. Indeed, chef Thomas Straker’s ‘All Things Butter’ viral TikTok series scored him millions of views and massive exposure. Now, he’s got his own restaurant.
You might not be going for the big time, but a simple World Chocolate Day recipe video can be an engaging way to show off your finished dish and tell the story of how you made it. With Adobe Express, you can edit video, insert graphics, add animations, and make title cards to help your recipe make a splash.
3 - Serve up some sweet social media posts.
Thanks to its association with happiness and fun, chocolate lends itself perfectly to social media. So, don’t sleep on the opportunity to share images and GIFs.
Image-based Facebook posts and eye-catching Twitter summary cards generate far more engagement than their text-only equivalents. And then you have Instagram — the go-to platform for well-curated pics of your most chocolatey creations.
Needless to say, great photography and graphic design skills don’t always come easy. But with Adobe Express, you can design, resize, and publish your social posts in a flash. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- GIFs. GIFs don’t get so much cut-through with younger audiences these days, but they’re still a great way to show off your personality. It’s easy to convert your video to GIF with Adobe Express. A great GIF for this occasion should be both fun and delicious.
- Blog links. If you’ve written a new recipe blog for World Chocolate Day, you can drive traffic to your site with a Facebook post, or build your blog’s profile with a Twitter banner. Upload your photos or footage into our editor, resize for your chosen platform and post in a few simple clicks.
- Instagram posts. On Instagram, more is more — so don’t hold back. With a quick browse, you’ll be able to find food-related posts that overflow with color, texture, and excitement, raking in the likes and impressions. Make yours quickly and easily with Adobe Express – your go-to editor for creative, customizable chocolatey grid posts.
Looking for more inspiration? Check out 33 social media post ideas to boost your business.
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4 - Send out enticing invites.
No World Chocolate Day business breakfast, promo day or party would be complete without a fancy invitation.
Use it to entice your special guests with some great images, provide key details, and build that all-important hype for the big day.
Keep the text punchy, personalized, and precise — don’t include any info that isn’t of the ‘need-to-know’ variety. The good news is — we’ve got thousands of stunning templates to help.
5 - Put up some appetizing posters.
If you’re hosting an event, posters are a great way to generate buzz. While most posters consist of standard components like title, text, graphics, and whitespace, it’s important to follow some additional principles to help yours do the job properly.
- Make it stand out from a distance. The text of your World Chocolate Day poster should be easy to read from a distance. Think of the text in three layers (like a fancy chocolate cake if you will). First, your headline should dominate — grabbing the attention at first glance. The next level should include key details like where and when the event will be, and what exactly it is, in smaller text. Finally, you have essential info like T&Cs.
- Contrast and color. You don’t have to start from a blank canvas with Adobe Express. Use a chocolatey backdrop as your starting point — then use negative space for text. Soft shades of cream, blue, pink, yellow and orange will all build contrast and interest. If you’re stuck, we’ve got thousands of templates that are good to go.
- Location. Think about where your poster will be displayed. Could you make it stand out even more against its backdrop by choosing a particular color or style? Don’t forget to keep your audience in mind too. What kind of visuals are sure to stop them in their tracks?
- Go big on imagery. Chocolate gives you the opportunity to be bold and have fun with your visuals, so your image could be just as important as text for reeling in your audience. Go for a single, engaging image that, much like your headline, is eye-catching and readable from a distance. A tight zoom on a great photo with a single focal point is a good way to go. Make sure nothing clashes with your text.
- Focus. Remember to give each element (including letters) plenty of space to breathe. This will help you keep your poster clear and uncluttered from a distance. Bold, wide typefaces are your friend. Remember – fancy scripts can be difficult to read.
Ready to build buzz for your big event? We’ve got plenty of high-quality poster templates to help. Upload your images, branding, and details in a flash — and simply hit print.
6 - Promote your World Chocolate Day event with flyers.
In marketing, repetition breeds recognition. In fact, you may need to expose people to your message between seven and 20 times before they truly notice it and take action. Alongside your static posters, you can make a mini flyer version to hand out on the streets and share online. This can really help you hammer home the message.
Make your flyers for free with Adobe Express — and choose from thousands of great templates.
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7 - Share your tasty business card using QR codes.
When it comes to marketing your World Chocolate Day event, nothing quite beats the personal touch. A business card can help you seal the deal with a face-to-face interaction and get across the key details of your business.
With Adobe Express QR Code templates, you can go one step further by adding a code that links out to your World Chocolate Day event. It’s fun, forward-thinking, interactive — and it might just encourage a promising new customer or contact to drop by.
Chocolate quotes to inspire you this World Chocolate Day.
Looking for some shareable inspiration? Our collection of funny chocolate quotes is a great starting point for a social post or other visual asset.
- “What use are cartridges in battle? I always carry chocolate instead.” — From Arms and the Man
- “It was like having a box of chocolates shut in the bedroom drawer. Until the box was empty it occupied the mind too much.” — Graham Greene
- “He gave her some chocolates to eat in the Tube. He entertained her with amazing statistics, culled from the weekly paper which he bought on Tuesdays. He was, in short, the perfect lover.” — P.G. Wodehouse
- “This is the age, among things, of chocolate.” — J. B. Priestley
- “Quentin's sickness was surely due to a riot in candy and ice-cream with chocolate sauce.” — Theodore Roosevelt
- “I'm not very keen on Hollywood. I'd rather have a nice cup of cocoa really”. – Noel Coward