Chasingaplate

About Chasingaplate

Chasing a Plate is the joint project of Thomas and Sheena, a New Zealand couple who built their channel around a straightforward premise: food is the most direct route into a culture. Originally travelling globally in search of standout dishes, they have since anchored much of their output to Melbourne — one of the world's more competitive food cities — while maintaining a strong presence in their home market of Auckland. Their content style leans documentary rather than review: recent videos profile a family that has run the same banh mi counter for nearly three decades, a chef who relocated from Tokyo to pursue a specific regional curry, and a pie-maker whose work they frame as the best in the country. That human-first framing is reinforced by an explicit editorial policy — their Instagram bio states outright that they are not paid by the restaurants they feature — which gives their recommendations a degree of credibility that distinguishes them from more commercially entangled food accounts.

Their YouTube channel carries the heavier creative investment, with strong engagement relative to their subscriber count and a consistent upload cadence, while Instagram functions largely as a discovery layer. The audience skews young — the 18–34 bracket makes up the substantial majority — and is concentrated in New Zealand, the United States, and Australia, a spread that reflects both their Kiwi origins and the international appetite for Melbourne food culture. Brand partnerships have clustered firmly in the travel-infrastructure category, with Airbnb, Booking.com, and SafetyWing all appearing on their YouTube channel, suggesting the channel is positioned as much as a travel resource as a local food guide. That positioning gives them a clear runway: as they expand their geographic coverage beyond Melbourne and Auckland, the travel-sponsor fit deepens, and the editorially independent reputation they have built makes them a credible vehicle for destination tourism and hospitality brands looking for audience trust rather than just reach.

Why brands partner

Chasingaplate reaches an audience concentrated in NZL primarily through Instagram, and is best activated via long-form YouTube integrations, Instagram Reels and Stories. As a food creator they map naturally to brands targeting that space. Demonstrated partners include SafetyWing and Booking.com. Engagement on Instagram runs around 1.1%, which points to an audience better suited to category-relevant, mid-funnel campaigns than to pure-reach buys. The channel's mix of long-form YouTube integrations and Instagram Reels and Stories lets a sponsor choose between short awareness placements and longer, more detailed integrations. Because the audience follows food content rather than arriving through untargeted reach, sponsorships that match the channel's subject matter tend to convert more efficiently than broad placements. A consistent, on-topic posting focus gives sponsors a predictable, brand-safe environment, lowering placement risk compared with broad, general-interest channels. Campaigns here are best measured on qualified engagement and consideration within the niche rather than on raw impression volume. For NZL-focused brands in food and related categories, Chasingaplate offers a defined, creative-fit audience rather than broad, low-intent impressions.