The Dot Studio
The Dot is read by the people who decide where the world eats and drinks. Chefs and bartenders. Hoteliers and sommeliers. The travellers who book the suite and the table. The industry, and the people who watch it closely.
The Studio is how brands work with us.
We make editorial-grade work in the voice the industry already trusts – writing, photography, film. We do not make advertising. We make the story a brand could not make on its own, and we make it properly. When we shoot for a partner we hand the work back, to keep and to use. Most publications never do this. We think it is the point.
The wall
Our editorial is not for sale. The Studio is marked clearly wherever it appears. A brand can commission our craft. It cannot commission our opinion. This is the point, not the fine print.
What we make
We cover the best bars, restaurants and hotels in Asia and the world. The Studio is where we put that eye to work for the people building them – brand stories, photography, film and the launch work that holds them together. We also consult: positioning, naming, tone of voice and how a venue talks to the room it wants to fill. We have spent years watching what works and what dies quietly, across openings in every market we cover.
Press and profile
We work as a press and PR partner for bars, restaurants, hotels and the brands around them – usually retained, month to month, not a one-off blast. We know this industry and the people who write about it, because we are part of it.
We run the full agency function. Press strategy and media relationships. Media trips, hosted and organised end to end. Launch communications, and the materials that make an editor pay attention. We work with international media as well as the press here at home, and we place stories in the rooms that matter – ours and others.
When the story runs somewhere else, we do what any good agency does: find the right writer, the right outlet, the right moment. When it runs in our own pages, you are buying the writing, the eye and the standard – not the verdict. We write it our way, we keep it honest, and we mark it as ours so the reader always knows. That is the line, and it is the reason an editor takes our call: we have never once wasted it.
We also take single launches when the moment calls for it.
Selected work
Havana Club Icónica Collection, Fairmont Hanoi – produced by The Dot in partnership with Pernod Ricard. Maestro Asbel Morales and Global Brand Ambassador Alfredo Guerra presented the Icónica Collection inside 8 Saville Row, including a pour of the unreleased Havana Club Union – the room only the second in the world to taste it. The Dot produced the photography, the film and the feature.
Campari Red Hands Vietnam – full campaign, produced by The Dot. A homepage takeover that turned the site red, an original cinema photoshoot, four feature articles and a mentorship series, Red Handed, pairing Vietnamese finalists with some of the world’s best bartenders – Keith Motsi of Virtù Tokyo, Marco of Bar Sathorn, Taki Li of Bar Leone Hong Kong and Ludovico De Biaggi of Oh No! Lulu Buenos Aires.
Bambino × Porcine – collaboration dinner, produced by The Dot. The Porcine team flew in from Sydney for a one-night collaboration. The Dot produced the promotional film, the interview feature and the social campaign across both audiences. Full house, 80 covers on the night.
Poppin Corks Wine Festival – conceived and produced by The Dot. An owned event, not a service job. Seven wine suppliers, two F&B brands.
The B.A.R. Awards – produced by The Dot. Vietnam’s first industry bar and restaurant awards, voted by the industry itself. 400+ guests.
The same eye, every week
The work above comes from the same team that reports from the best hotels, restaurants and bars in the world – Gleneagles, Four Seasons Firenze, Bar Leone, Koan Copenhagen and more. We know what good looks like because we have sat in it.
Work with the Studio
Tell us what you are opening. david@thedotmagazine.com
