NEW CLIENT: HORECA FORMA

SHIFT: one story, three formats

How we split Horeca Forma’s single magazine into a Large, Medium and Small version, each tailored to its reader.

Horeca Forma offers around a hundred training courses for people working in hospitality, and they’re free. Still, not everyone signs up on their own. When you’re taking in deliveries at six in the morning and closing out the till at midnight, a training calendar isn’t top of mind. That was our starting point when Horeca Forma asked us to rethink their magazine.

One magazine for everyone no longer works

In the past, a single magazine went out to the entire audience. But a business owner and an employee read with very different eyes. One lies awake over margins, staff scheduling and profitability. The other wants to grow in the trade, and above all to see quickly what’s in it for them. A magazine that tries to serve both ends up slightly less relevant to each.

So we proposed a split. Not three separate projects, but one family of three formats that reinforce each other: a Large, a Medium and a Small.

Large: SHIFT, for the business owner

SHIFT is the flagship: a 72-page magazine for hospitality business owners. It covers what keeps them busy every day: food cost, profitability, how to lead and retain a team, how to keep guests coming back.

The magazine deliberately doesn’t open with the training offer. It opens with recognisable moments on the floor: the briefing before the doors open, the food cost that doesn’t add up, the colleague who calls in sick at the last minute. Only then does Horeca Forma come into the picture, as an achievable next step. The training offer sits at the back of the magazine, as a natural follow-up to what the reader has just read.

The name carries the concept. A shift is the service you work, but also a small change in how you work. We drew inspiration from the idea of habit stacking: new behaviour sticks more easily when you keep it small and link it to what you already do every day. Not overhauling the whole business, but adding one better question, agreement or habit.

We set the editorial bar high. Every insight had to pass one test: could you just as easily find this on Google? If so, we kept digging.

Medium: Elke shift telt, for the team

People employed in hospitality get their own magazine: Elke shift telt (“Every shift counts”). It has 20 pages and is built around the training programme.

Alongside that, we repurpose articles from SHIFT, rewritten for this reader. The same topic gets a different angle: not “how do I control food cost as an owner”, but “what can I do myself during my shift”. That way Horeca Forma gets more out of the same content, and every reader feels addressed directly.

Elke shift telt is more practical and clearer about the offer. It has one goal: convincing employees to start a course.

Small: the training poster

Next to both magazines comes the purest form: a poster with nothing but the overview of courses. No stories, no detours. It hangs where staff see it every day, in the kitchen, behind the bar or in the staff room, and makes the next step as visible as possible.

Craft meets AI

For the imagery, we brought two worlds together. The people, the kitchens and the service were shot by photographers: real faces, real rush, real moments on the floor. That’s where the credibility of a hospitality magazine lives, and no machine can replace it.

The mood images were generated in AI by BeContent, made to measure. Each one was designed to fit the story it sits next to, matched in colour, content and style to the photography and the magazine’s look. No generic stock, but images that belong only to SHIFT.

The result isn’t a compromise between the two. Each makes the other stronger. The photography keeps the magazine grounded and human. AI gives us the freedom to visualise ideas, trends and atmospheres that are hard to shoot, while staying true to one visual language throughout. AI and craftsmanship, working side by side.

One family, three entry points

Together, the three formats work as a funnel. SHIFT convinces the business owner that training is an investment in the business. Elke shift telt makes employees want to get started themselves. The poster keeps the offer in sight at all times. The same message, in the length and tone that fits each reader.

A magazine won’t change a whole trade overnight. But the right format for the right reader can make someone want to take that one course. That was our ambition.

Curious how a content family could set your organisation in motion? Get in touch.