An Instagram post about the German National Soccer Team gets 70,000 views. A post about England gets a little more. And one on Norway gets twice as many.
“And I know absolutely nothing about soccer,” Olivia DeMattio says. “Nothing.”
DeMattio, however, knows plenty about social media.
Her Instagram account, @that.food.chick, has nearly 15,000 followers — an increase of approximately 2,000 from the start of the World Cup. The 39-day event (which concludes July 19) is turning this local account on food, fashion and hospitality into a global social hotspot for soccer.
And doing so despite this note: DeMattio’s posts, all of which are based on activity at the MC Hotel in Montclair, are as much about sports as they are about the hotel, where many top national teams have been staying.
For all the concerns about whether New Jersey businesses would find a way to take advantage of a global event coming to the state, DeMattio and the MC Hotel are providing one few may have thought — using social media around the event to build brand recognition. Jeff Sica, who owns the MC Hotel through his company Circled Squared Alternative Investments. Says hiring DeMattio to do social media on a part-time basis six months ago is an incredible marketing success story.
“We got to know Olivia after we started inviting influencers to the MC to experience all that we have to offer,” he said. “Of all the influencers who have visited, we found Olivia’s creativity, charisma and light-hearted wit to be beyond anything we’ve ever seen.
“For her to be able to reach hundreds of thousands of people on her coverage of the World Cup has brought us recognition we only dreamed of.”
DeMattio’s efforts may be a case study worthy of a marketing TED talk.
Her personal story as a self-made business boss may be even more interesting.
***
That Food Chick started completely by accident, the 33-year-old DeMattio says. But it did so in a way that’s completely familiar to anyone who grew up on social media content.
“I love trying new restaurants, and I have an Instagram account,” she says.
Every time she found a place worth talking about, she would post about it for friends and family. They started telling her she should turn it into something bigger. She wasn’t sold.
“I felt like everybody has a blog — like everyone’s a food influencer,” she says.
Eventually, she relented.
She started with no expectations, which was a good thing. Early posts pulled in two likes and five views, she says.
“I didn’t care how many views or likes I got, I just liked doing it,” she says.
Her audience slowly started to grow. About two and a half years ago, a restaurant noticed and asked her to come out. Then another reached out. And another.
DeMattio can’t point to a single video that flipped the switch, but she says a run of videos she shot in Jersey City early on is what really got things moving.
Read about how DeMattio’s social media sparked success
- How (and why) MC Hotel became preferred destination for World Cup teams
- To see exclusive clips of Teams Norway, England, and Germany during their stay at the MC Hotel, head over to @that.food.chick on social media.
Today, she says, nearly 100 restaurants reach out to her a month. She turns almost all of them down — even though they are offering a free meal.
“I am super selective on where I go,” she says. “I will not go somewhere that I already know I’m not going like or vibe with.”
And if she doesn’t love something when she’s there, she says she leaves it out of the video rather than posting a bad review.
“I’m never going to bash a restaurant because everybody has bad days, right?” she says. “I know the weight that bad reviews put on people.”
***
That Food Chick was never meant to be just about food reviews — videos that simply say ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ about a dish or restaurant.
Her account covers fashion and hospitality, too. DeMattio says they all work together.
“You dress up nicely to go to dinner,” she says. “You dress up nicely to go stay at a hotel, and then sometimes you dress up nicely to stay at a hotel and go to dinner.”
DeMattio said she’s partnered with a handful of local boutiques, who either sponsor her outfits or host her for try-on videos of new arrivals. She tags the boutique or designer in
each post, and she says plenty of followers come to her specifically for fashion advice — and the discount codes that come with it.
Her first videos for MC Hotel were about her experiences on staycations there. One, which combined the hotel and her outfit did particularly well. Another, which talked about staying at the MC and going to dinner at its restaurant, Campofiore, did fabulously well, pulling in about 60,000 views.
DeMattio feels the real secret to her success is the quality of the product. A former Miss New Jersey, she knows how to make an impression.
“I’m documenting the restaurant itself, the decor, the service,” she says, rattling off all the components. “I’m putting a lot of myself into the videos; I’m incorporating outfits and music.”
DeMattio feels the voice overs, the styling and the images provide a mix that gives viewers more than one reason to keep watching.
“I put a lot into each piece of content,” she says.
***
Long before That Food Chick, there was That Ford Chick.
DeMattio has spent the past eight years selling cars at the Maplecrest Ford in Mendham, where she built an Instagram account for the dealership, posting customer photos and updates.
“That Food Chick is just a play on words on That Ford Chick,” she says.
That Ford Chick also is very good at business.
DeMattio is one of the top female sales reps in the area — partially because of her side hustle. Restaurant owners and servers who’ve waited on her become car customers, she says.
Her business résumé doesn’t stop at cars and content. DeMattio owns Simple Coffee in Mendham, where she once worked as a manager before leaving for the dealership, which is just a few doors down.
She never stopped thinking about the store. So, about five and a half years ago, she asked the previous owner if he would sell.
“He was like, ‘Sure.’ And that was literally it,” she says. “I’ve owned it since.”
She later added a second Simple Coffee location in Jersey City’s Harborside building.
***
Between the dealership, two coffee shops and a content schedule that’s picking up international attention, DeMattio says there isn’t much room left in the day.
She’s fine with that.
“I’m kind of a weird person,” she says. “I don’t watch any TV; I don’t watch movies. My downtime at night is literally editing videos after work.”
Her days and weeks run on a tight loop: dealership shifts until 5 or 7 p.m. (editing at her desk during slow moments), a lunch-break stop at the coffee shop to make sure things are running smoothly, then dinner out to film new content before returning home for more editing.
She admits it’s crazy.
“Everything is a balancing act,” she says.
She’s even found time to give back.
DeMattio recently ran a program at Randolph High School, walking juniors and seniors through how to create content with little more than their smarts and creativity.
“I use nothing but my iPhone,” she says.
***
Sica says MC Hotel has seen a different uptick in interest since the start of the World Cup.
“The World Cup coverage has increased visibility of the MC dramatically,” he said. “We are beginning to see overwhelming interest from New Jersey residents and businesses and the entertainment industry.
“Up until this point we were an undiscovered treasure. Now it’s as if the floodgates have been opened as new business pours in.”
The same can be said for DeMattio.
The World Cup is adding a layer to her life that she never expected.
She and the MC Hotel are planning more watch parties in the days ahead — ones in which she will play a lead role, not just serving as the person capturing it.
Speaking engagements — which she loves to do — are coming in daily, as are requests for more soccer coverage.
Despite, well …
“I swear, I don’t know anything about soccer,” she says over and over again.
But she does know about social media. And marketing. And capturing the moment.
And she does know that she’d welcome an opportunity to work in Europe — dare we say, ‘That Fjord Chick?’
“Get me to Italy,” she says with a laugh.
For now, she’s busy selling cars, coffee and content. And taking advantage of a once-in-a-generation sporting event to build a brand that is growing globally by the day.
“I’ll take as many followers as the world wants to give me,” she says.
