How CAVA, Alexis Bittar, and JCPenney Are Engaging Customers With Bite-Sized, Episodic Content That Keeps Them Coming Back for More

Small business takeaway:

• As brand content fights for attention, CAVA, JCPenney, and Alexis Bittar executives share how short, episodic storytelling can turn marketing into appointment viewing. CAVA’s in-store dating show made the restaurant chain’s bowls part of Gen Z entertainment culture, JCPenney’s holiday micronovela embedded fashion in culturally specific storytelling for Hispanic shoppers, and Alexis Bittar’s mockumentary built a loyal audience while helping shift the jewelry brand toward direct-to-consumer sales.

Consumers have never had more content competing for their attention, making it harder than ever for brands to stand out. Yet a growing number are doing so by thinking less like marketers and more like entertainment companies. 

Their secret: short, episodic content that keeps customers engaged and eager for the next installment. It’s a strategy borrowed from the streaming playbook: people don’t just want information; they want a reason to come back for more. In a Sprout Social survey of over 2,000 global social media users, 57% said they wanted brands to prioritize posting original content series.

From a fast-casual restaurant chain to a major department store to a jewelry designer, three brands have figured out how to trigger that hankering-for-next-episode feeling in customers. 

CAVA Director of Social: Fast-casual chain’s Bowlmates dating game show ‘helps us expand the Cavaverse’

Mediterranean fast-casual chain CAVA turned a dating game into a marketing hit, generating over 2 million views and nearly 2,000 applicants for its second season.

The restaurant chain’s Bowlmates Dating Game features singles in New York City who build each other a CAVA bowl based on dating questions to “find out if it’s love at first bite or just another lunch fling,” according to the brand.

The series, which airs weekly on Instagram and TikTok, was the brainchild of Andrew Downing, the company’s Director of Social, and his team. Last spring, after noticing that other brands such as jeweler Alexis Bittar were putting out engaging episodic content, he tasked his staff with coming up with ideas for a social series for CAVA. 

“We wanted to be among the first brands to really dip our toes in the water,” he said, “and to reach people that consume CAVA, but maybe don’t follow our brand page.”

Team members spent two weeks brainstorming alone and together and generated over a dozen solid ideas. “Then, from there, it became about figuring out what show would be the easiest turnkey one to do,” Downing said. With Gen Z consuming a lot of dating content but increasingly gravitating toward in-person encounters over apps, an in-person dating show set inside a CAVA store seemed like a natural fit.

A friend recommended creative agency Very Online Agency for its understanding of how to film for social media. Together with the firm, Downing’s team refined their idea. Their top choice for a host, stand-up comedian and digital creator Daniella Mora, accepted the offer. “Daniella is hilarious, and a lot of her content is about dating and Gen Z humor and lifestyle,” he said. “We were massive fans.”

After a quick casting process, shooting took place in CAVA’s Williamsburg location. In addition to the singles talking about CAVA ingredients and bowls, images of ingredients pop up on the screen during episodes. At the end of each, singles take their first bite of their customized bowl and presumably finish it on their date once the camera stops rolling. Most singles are in their 20s or early 30s.

Very Online Agency handled shooting and editing. The first Bowlmates episode aired about a month after the team began brainstorming. “It was very fast,” said Downing. Season one featured six two-and-a-half-minute episodes and twelve singles. 

“People really liked the show,” he added, so much so that when casting opened for season two, nearly 2,000 people applied. Many of the singles appearing on the show were trying CAVA for the very first time.

Bowlmates has amassed over 2 million views. With season two, Downing and team created separate videos of episode highlights plus footage that didn’t make it onto shows’ final cuts. “Those videos ended up having their own life on the internet,” he said.

The series has been economical to produce. Downing said “it can be cheaper than you might think,” depending on a brand’s premise. If an agency quotes more than $50,000 to produce an episodic series, shop around, he said.

CAVA is currently weighing a season three while revisiting the initial list of ideas and the option of launching a new show. Future episodes could go up on YouTube as well, which would allow for longer content, more like five to seven minutes. But it’s a delicate balance between extra content and losing viewers’ attention, he said.

The brand also spun off merchandise from the show: a Bowlmates playing card dating game, which it released on Valentine’s Day.

The Bowlmates concept has resonated, said Downing, in part because consumers are increasingly receptive to brand content that doesn't try to disguise itself as something else. “Bowlmates helps us expand the Cavaverse,” he said. 

“Our thinking from here is what’s one thing we can keep doing well, because that’s how people are consuming content now.”

JCPenney VP of Integrated Marketing: ‘Micronovela’ gains following among chain’s core Hispanic shopper base

JCPenney's holiday micronovela, created with Spanish-language media company Univision, drew 16 million impressions and 5.6 million video views without feeling like an ad.

JCPenney created its five-episode series “El Amigo De Mi Novio Es Millonario” with Univision, launching around the holidays last year and specifically targeting the brand’s Hispanic customers. 

The series paired holiday-themed stories reflecting the lives and values of the communities JCPenney serves with its fashion. The narrative centered on how affordable JCPenney fashion can help people feel confident and stylish, using humor and storytelling to connect with audiences.

“Our research showed that audiences responded to narrative content that felt native to their entertainment habits, unlike ads, which can sometimes disrupt a viewing experience,” said Lisa Schoder, Vice President of Integrated Marketing at JCPenney. “Micronovelas allowed us to tell stories that resonated deeply with specific communities, in this case, our Hispanic audience, and the format played exceptionally well across broadcast, streaming, social, and shoppable experiences.”

The micronovelas were created with ViX (Univision’s streaming platform) and posted on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, ViX, Despierta América, and Desiguales. Each platform served a different purpose: broadcast and streaming helped reach large audiences, social media creators made content feel culturally relevant, and shopping features made it easy for viewers to buy featured products, Schoder said. 

The series wove products like holiday dresses and blazers into the story so seamlessly that when the storytelling landed, audiences sought the brand out on their own. “The reception was overwhelmingly positive,” Schoder said. “Viewers responded to the storyline in a meaningful way: this wasn’t just passive viewership.”

Data showed 16 million impressions, over 5.6 million video views, and 28,000 meaningful interactions, meaning visiting the JCPenney site after viewing, searching for JCPenney, or clicking through to learn more about featured product. “What was particularly exciting was that 79% of Despierta América viewers were likely to engage online with JCPenney, demonstrating strong audience carryover,” said Schoder.

For JCPenney, this kind of serialized content is a new addition to its broader marketing mix, alongside more traditional advertising. The goal is straightforward: reach people where they already spend their time, with content that fits the platform.

The short-form drama series worked, and the brand is already thinking about what comes next, Schoder said—new formats, new platforms, new kinds of storytelling.

Alexis Bittar CEO: The jewelry brand’s New York-based mockumentary earns cult following and flips its business model 

Three years ago on Instagram Reels, jewelry brand Alexis Bittar launched a mockumentary-style series following a group of colorful New York characters whose lives rarely go according to plan. The series centers on Upper East Side socialite Margeaux and assistant Jules, and it’s featured celebrities including Susan Sarandon and Amy Sedaris alongside the brand’s founder and CEO, while subtly showcasing bangles, earrings, and the brand's signature Lucite pieces.

“The jewelry is in the background,” said Founder and CEO Alexis Bittar. “We very rarely talk about products. We’re building viewership, and people who are very engaged with the actual content are also seeing the earrings.”

The series has won a Webby Award and built a cult following. “Originally when I started it, it was my love story to New York,” Bittar said. “We knew right off the bat that we had broken a mold. Every large fashion brand was paying attention.”

The series features four episodes a week that also run on YouTube and TikTok, though most viewers watch on Instagram. Bittar had sold the company in 2015, stepped away for five years, then bought it back from Brooks Brothers when the retailer went bankrupt in 2021. Creating episodic content seemed like a good way to have more control over how products were portrayed, he said, and weave in social commentary he thought was important, but less likely to get airtime in traditional advertising.

“I’ve always been someone who meshes social commentary into my marketing, and I always like to be disruptive,” Bittar said. In the series, the brand isn’t shy about tackling complicated topics, like race, immigration, and gender.

Bittar is heavily involved, writing and directing episodes himself. The approach has become an appealing one, he said, as more traditional advertising in newspapers and fashion magazines has become less effective. “Three quarters of a page in The New York Times used to do a lot, and now it doesn’t really,” he said.

Bittar attributes a bump in sales directly to the series. It has helped the brand transition from around 75% wholesale and 25% direct-to-consumer to the reverse. Around the 2025 holidays, the brand also launched a second, unrelated series, a true crime documentary that followed the story of a serial killer from the 1990s.

That series is on pause, even though it did well, as “with Instagram, it’s hard to have two narratives going at the same time,” said Bittar. But the takeaway goes beyond any single series. “It’s all about building community and engagement and really connecting in an authentic way with your customers that makes them loyal to your brand,” he said.

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