How Dubai Chocolate cracked the viral code 🍫

📊 Did you know?

9 in 10 customers worldwide use social media to keep up with trends and cultural moments.

(Sprout Social, 2025)

📖 How Dubai Chocolate Became a Viral Global Sensation

The chocolate market is one of the hardest industries to crack…

It’s ruled by giants like Mars, Nestlé & Lindt, who dominate store shelves and media budgets.

But in the last year, one product disrupted the entire category:

Dubai Chocolate.

Here’s the twist — people know the chocolate, not the company behind it. That alone tells you everything you need to know about their marketing success.

In less than 12 months, Dubai Chocolate went from a niche luxury treat to a global viral sensation:

→ 300% increase in sales, selling over 75,000 bars in three months

→ Over 300,000 TikTok videos created about the chocolate

→ UK supermarkets imposed a two-bar-per-customer limit

→ Global media coverage from CNN, Forbes & The New York Times

All without spending millions on celebrity deals or TV ads.

Now the question is: How did they do it?

Here’s the Dubai Chocolate playbook:

1️⃣ Creator-Led Launch

How do you get thousands of creators talking about you — without paying them all?

Here’s the secret sauce behind Dubai Chocolate’s viral takeover:

With 300,000+ videos on TikTok, over 20,000 creator mentions on Instagram for the hashtag #dubaichocolate, and 1,900+ direct creator mentions for the brand, one thing is clear:

Creators were the engine behind their global success.

But the question is how to get explosive growth with creator speaking about you organically all across the globe?

👉️ Make your product "built for social media"

The chocolate wasn’t just tasty — it was made for TikTok. It looked premium, had satisfying textures, a crackling ASMR sound when broken, and luxurious packaging.

The product itself became content.

👉️ Seed your product to multiple creator niches in one market

Dubai Chocolate didn’t just partner with one type of creator. They focused first on their home market (Dubai) and collaborated with:

🍫 Foodie creators → To trigger food discovery
🎙️ ASMR influencers → To leverage sensory, viral sounds
✨ Luxury lifestyle creators → To position the chocolate as premium & aspirational

This allowed them to dominate feeds across categories — not just food TikTok.

@eatsbynat

Dubai chocolate asmr! 🍫 #dubaichocolatebar #dubaichocolate #dessertasmr #foodie #explore #asmr

👉️ Use a cross-platform strategy

They didn’t rely only on TikTok.

Dubai Chocolate activated creators on YouTube, Instagram & TikTok at the same time:

🍽️ Recipe videos on YouTube
📸 Aesthetic lifestyle content on Instagram
🎧 ASMR unboxing & tasting videos on TikTok

This multi-platform approach created a massive ripple effect.

All of that triggered an organic snowball effect — with hundreds of creators posting their own reviews.

💡 Pro Tips: To replicate this, start by testing paid partnerships across creator niches. Once you spot what works — scale with product gifting.

Use tools like Click Analytic to quickly find and filter the right creators by stats, niche & growth potential.

2️⃣ Scarcity & Exclusivity Tactics

Dubai Chocolate played on three key triggers: scarcity, luxury, and cultural storytelling.

🍫 Weekend-only drops → You couldn’t buy it anytime. Only limited drops, mostly on weekends. Result? Long queues and sell-outs.

🍫 Premium price ($30 per bar) → High price made it feel exclusive and desirable.

🍫 Unique flavors → Middle Eastern-inspired tastes like pistachio & knafeh created curiosity.

🍫 Limited locations → At first, only in Dubai. creating scarcity and FOMO worldwide.

The result?
People weren’t just buying chocolate — they were buying status and a story worth sharing.

3️⃣  Community-Driven Buzz

The brand didn’t need to keep paying creators after the initial buzz.

The trend took off by itself.

Once the first wave of influencer videos hit social media, the chocolate became a cultural obsession.
Foodie influencers, micro-creators, and regular customers flooded TikTok and Instagram with unboxings, taste tests, and reviews — all unpaid.

The audience became the marketing machine.

The real turning point?

ASMR creator Maria Vehera posted an unwrapping + crunching video — which hit 100M+ views and ignited the trend.

From there, the momentum became unstoppable 🔥 

Why did it work? 

Because Dubai Chocolate tapped into the power of Foodie Culture.

They understood that visually satisfying, indulgent food content is a magnet on social media.

And the numbers prove it:

• On TikTok, food content drives 2x higher engagement than standard product videos

• 72% of consumers use social media to discover new food & snacks

• Food unboxing & ASMR videos consistently rank among the top-performing formats in the food category

The chocolate wasn’t just a product — it became a content engine.
Everyone wanted to be part of the trend.

💡 Pro Tip:
That’s how you build UGC virality:
→ Start with paid creators + strategic seeding
→ Create scarcity & exclusivity
→ Let the community pick it up organically — because no one wants to miss out on the trend

4️⃣  Cultural Storytelling

Dubai Chocolate wasn’t selling “just chocolate.”

They sold a story:

✨ A taste of Dubai
✨ Middle Eastern flavors fused with premium European chocolate
✨ A luxurious, limited experience

This positioning helped the product stand out in a market saturated with generic chocolate bars.

The cultural narrative became part of the trend.
Everyone wanted to try the "Dubai chocolate" they kept seeing online.

📌 Key Learnings for Your Brand

• Create scarcity & exclusivity — people want what they can’t easily get

• Tap into content formats that trigger sensory engagement

• Make your product emotionally & visually shareable

• Build storytelling around culture, not just the product

• Let your community amplify the trend

Now it’s your turn!

If Dubai Chocolate can break into a saturated market and become the viral product of the year — so can your brand.

The difference? Strategy.
And that’s where we can help.

Want to know how creator marketing could work for you in 2025?
Book a free strategy call with me.
I’ve led 200+ successful campaigns and recently shared my insights on Swiss TV.

🚨 Don’t wait — your competitors won’t.
(Psst… the call is free, no strings attached.)
🔗 Schedule your call

🌐 TikTok Shop steps up Europe expansion as US future remains uncertain

😊 Meta revives ‘OG Facebook’ with revamped Friends Tab

🖼️ How the new ChatGPT image update is a game-changer for marketer

🔁 Instagram adds ‘Reposts’ feature

⏭️ Instagram now lets you speed up Reels

🔻 Instagram discontinues Notes feature

 ❌ YouTube Shorts added to Google search results