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How we supported itsu’s rise as a category-leading grocery in Gyoza and Bao

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total category visibility
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YoY Growth in non-brand organic impressions
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YoY Increase in 1st page keyword rankings
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New rankings in the top 3 positions for ‘gyoza’ keywords
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itsu grocery ltd is a global FMCG brand. itsu specialises in producing and selling Asian-inspired cuisine through its grocery and restaurant chain. The company’s grocery products include gyoza, bao, ramen, noodles, salads, sushi, sauces, and snacks, among others, and are very popular in major UK supermarkets, including Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, M&S, Morrisons, Asda and Tesco.

However, while itsu had strong offline visibility across retail and restaurants, this was not reflected digitally.
In search, high-intent grocery categories such as gyoza lacked a clear brand leader, with discovery fragmented across retailers and third-party content.

The challenge
  • Gyoza demand existed, but no clear category leadership
  • Retailers controlled early-stage discovery
  • Publishers owned education and usage queries
  • itsu was present, but not positioned as the go to gyoza brand

 

Consumer demand for gyoza was strong and growing, but the category lacked a clear digital authority.

Early-stage discovery was dominated by retailers, while informational and high intent  queries were largely owned by publishers and recipe-led content publishers.

Although itsu was visible within the category, it was not yet positioned as the go-to brand for gyoza on search. Discovery, education, and consideration were fragmented across third parties.

Without owning the category digitally, growth would remain distributed rather than dominant, limiting itsu’s ability to lead the category.

The Strategy: own gyoza in search

The objectives were to

  • Own non-brand gyoza discovery
  • Own user focused and high intent queries
  • Become the most visible and authoritative gyoza brand in the UK grocery search

 

Rather than competing at the point of purchase, the focus was on winning earlier in the journey, where category leadership is established. This was not about incremental traffic growth. It was about owning the category in search.

The Approach We Took

The approach was based on a comprehensive category cluster analysis to identify gaps, opportunities, and demand across the gyoza search landscape.

  • Mapped gyoza-related clusters across discovery, education, usage, and purchase intent
  • Identified where itsu was underrepresented and where competitors and retailers dominated
  • Created new category and content entry points aligned to these clusters
  • Built a dedicated gyoza hub supported by a clear semantic architecture
  • Curated existing recipe and blog content into focused gyoza-led collections to support education and usage journeys
  • Enhanced gyoza product content to strengthen relevance and category association
  • Connected education, recipes, and products to reinforce authority across the category
  • Used Digital PR to support brand authority and reinforce itsu’s leadership position
The Approach We Took

The approach was based on a comprehensive category cluster analysis to identify gaps, opportunities, and demand across the gyoza search landscape.

  • Mapped gyoza-related clusters across discovery, education, usage, and purchase intent
  • Identified where itsu was underrepresented and where competitors and retailers dominated
  • Created new category and content entry points aligned to these clusters
  • Built a dedicated gyoza hub supported by a clear semantic architecture
  • Curated existing recipe and blog content into focused gyoza-led collections to support education and usage journeys
  • Enhanced gyoza product content to strengthen relevance and category association
  • Connected education, recipes, and products to reinforce authority across the category
  • Used Digital PR to support brand authority and reinforce itsu’s leadership position
Results
  • itsu achieved the largest share of voice for gyoza-related searches in the UK, capturing 60% of total category visibility
  • Non-brand organic impressions to gyoza content increased by 180% YoY
  • Page-one keyword rankings across gyoza searches increased by 220% YoY
  • New keyword rankings across gyoza searches increased by 360% YoY
  • itsu ranked in the top 3 positions for over 900 of core gyoza keywords, ahead of retailers and competitor brands
  • Non-brand organic clicks to gyoza content increased by 68% YoY
  • itsu was referenced in 23% of gyoza-related AI responses
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