Why Our Food Videos Outperform Travel by 3x, and What That Means for F&B Brands

We make travel films for a living. Airlines, tourism boards, the Discovery Channel. So it stung a little when we went back through the numbers on our own ANYDOKO channels and saw our food videos beating our travel videos by roughly three to one. A plate of Peking duck outperformed a drone shot of a coastline. Again and again.

That result changed how we plan content. It should change how restaurant groups, hotel F&B teams and drinks brands plan their budgets too. After years of food film production in Hong Kong, audiences actually stop scrolling for, here's what we think is going on.

The numbers behind the hunch

Some context first. Our original channels reach more than 4 million people a month. We've passed 50 million video views and have over 100,000 followers. It isn't a lab experiment. But when a pattern shows up across series and platforms, you stop calling it luck.

Our Hawker Style series is a good example. Episodes like Best Peking Duck in Beijing and Must-Eats in Hong Kong are simple on paper. One host, one city, a lot of eating. They keep finding new viewers long after release. The travel pieces do fine. They just don't spread as far.

Why food wins, in our experience

Everyone eats. Not everyone is flying next month.

A travel film asks a lot of the viewer. Book leave, buy flights, find a hotel. Most people watch it as a daydream and move on. A food film asks for one thing: dinner. The gap between "that looks good" and "let's go" is a few hours. Sometimes a few minutes. For a restaurant, that short gap is the entire point of making the video.

Sound does half the work

Sizzle. The crack of roast pork skin. Milk foam folding into espresso. Food brings its own soundtrack, and people react to it even with the volume low. When we filmed Masters of Microfoam for Breville, the texture of the milk and the hiss of the steam wand did as much storytelling as anyone on camera. A mountain can't do that.

People argue about food

Nobody fights in the comments over whether a beach is pretty. They will absolutely fight over the best wonton noodles in the city. That argument is engagement, and platforms reward it. Every "you missed the place on my street" comment pushes the video to someone new.

It fits every format

A dish works as a six-second vertical clip, a 60-second reel, or a segment inside a 24-minute TV episode. Travel usually needs time to breathe. Food can make its case in one bite.

What this means for F&B brands

Here's our honest opinion. A lot of Hong Kong film production still treats food as filler: the quick dim sum shot you cut to between wide shots of the harbour. That's backwards. If food is what people watch, food should lead the story.

A few things we lean on in client work:

• Make people the characters. Chefs, bartenders, the auntie who's folded dumplings for thirty years. Hands and faces make viewers care about the plate. You can see how we approach restaurant storytelling in Joyful Meals for Jardine Restaurant Group.

• Shoot for appetite, not the menu. A menu shot shows what you sell. An appetite shot makes someone hungry. Steam, pull, pour, cut. Movement is what sells.

• Think in series. One spot gets a spike. A series gives people a reason to come back. That's the thinking behind multi-part food work like the Hong Kong Tourism Board's Interactive Food Series and Wine and Dine.

• Plan every cut before the shoot. Vertical, horizontal, long, short. Deciding this on day one costs far less than reframing footage in the edit.

That last point is where a lot of budgets quietly leak away.

How to pick the right production partner

Don't just search for the best video production company in Hong Kong and go with the flashiest showreel. Ask to see food work specifically. Lighting a bowl of soup so it doesn't look flat is a completely different skill from lighting a presenter on a hilltop.

Ask practical questions. Who styles the food? How do they keep steam alive on set, or stop ice cream melting between takes? Can they show you videos that actually performed, not just ones that looked nice?

Then ask about distribution. The Hong Kong video production scene has plenty of crews who can shoot. Far fewer can tell you where the film should live and how it will get seen. Our Malaysia Airlines and Hong Kong Tourism Board campaigns earned industry recognition, including a PR Week Gold for Best Brand Campaign, and in both cases the distribution plan mattered as much as the footage.

The takeaway

Travel still matters to us, and we'll keep making it. But if you run an F&B brand and you're deciding where the video budget goes, lead with the food. It's what people watch, share and act on.

At Anydoko Creative Studios, we've filmed kitchens, bars and hawker stalls from Hong Kong to Akita, and the lesson keeps repeating. Good food film production Hong Kong diners respond to isn't about the most expensive camera. It comes down to appetite, character and a clear plan for where the film ends up. Browse our case studies, take a look at our food and drink films, or get in touch when you're ready to talk. Read More: Why a Media Brand Makes a Better Production Partner Than a Production Company

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why do food videos get more engagement than travel videos?
Food is immediate and universal. Viewers can act on a food video the same day, while travel usually means weeks of planning. Food also has strong sound cues, sparks debate in the comments, and works in very short formats, all of which help social platforms push it to more people.

2. How much does it cost to produce a restaurant or food video?
It depends on crew size, number of shoot days, locations, food styling, talent and how many edits you need for different platforms. A single social clip costs far less than a multi-episode series. The most reliable way to get an accurate figure is to share a brief with a production team and request a quote.

3. What types of food videos work best for restaurants?
Chef or founder stories, close-up "hero dish" films, behind-the-scenes kitchen content and short vertical clips built around one signature item tend to perform well. The strongest restaurant videos focus on appetite and people rather than simply walking through the menu.

4. How long should a food video for social media be?
For Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts, 15 to 45 seconds is usually the sweet spot, with the most appetising shot in the first two seconds. Longer pieces of three to ten minutes suit YouTube, websites and series content where viewers want the full story.

5. Do I need a professional food stylist for a video shoot?
For anything beyond casual social content, yes. A food stylist keeps dishes looking fresh under hot lights, manages steam, melt and garnish between takes, and makes sure every plate looks consistent from shot to shot. It's often the difference between food that looks tasty and food that looks tired.