Recently, student ambassador and marketer Matthew Zaino created a video displaying Marketplace Chef Kenny Langston’s specialty cooking. Zaino had a strong instinct that the post would do better than others, but he had no idea just how much better it’d perform.
Langston has been working as a chef for the school since 2017. In his seven years at the university, he has grown to become a member of the community cherished not only by his fellow faculty, but by students as well. With the impact that Langston has had on the university’s environment, videos focusing on him posted to the dining social media pages tend to perform better than others.
When deciding on a concept for another video, Zaino went with an idea that would display Langston’s grill special for that day, “Kenny’s glazed donut sandwich.” Once the video was finalized, Zaino knew it would do well. Following the publication of the video, the attention came quickly.
In just a matter of days, the video reached hundreds of thousands of views on Instagram, reaching far beyond the university community. The reactions to the video were overwhelmingly positive, with hundreds praising Langston and his positive attitude. One comment read, “Now this is how you take pride and joy in your work. When you have the chance to make a positive impact on someone’s day, [seize] the moment!”
It even led his daughter to open a fan account that has amassed over 100 followers, showing Langston’s life outside of his job, where he takes care of his wheelchair-bound mother, despite suffering from back problems himself. The video gained the university’s dining pages over 6,500 new followers, nearly doubling its original following. Today, the video has a combined total of over 1.1 million views and 126.7 thousand likes across Instagram and TikTok.
“I think it performed well because it’s simple, heartwarming, and the music really added to it too,” said Zaino. “It’s funny because I usually try to spend too much time trying to pick the right sound, but this was literally the first trending sound I picked and it just fit the vibe perfectly.”
When Langston was made aware of the video’s popularity, he was thrilled.
“He would give me updates on the likes every time I saw him. He told me even parents at football games were asking for selfies with him,” said Zaino. The pair then decided to make a follow-up video in which Langston reads some of the comments left on the original video to take advantage of the video’s success.
Zaino said, “That video performed really well for us too. Kenny is a natural and great on camera. Nothing is ever scripted with him.” The follow-up video went on to do well also, sitting at a combined 71.8 thousand views and 5.4 thousand likes.
While a video focusing on Langston specifically hasn’t been uploaded in a few weeks, he often makes appearances on the Instagram page’s stories, and even made a cameo in a video overlooking what to expect from the dining halls during the month of November. As much as people want to see more of Langston, Zaino wants to showcase other staff members as well.
“I want to be sure to highlight all of our other amazing dining staff members too, with time,”said Zaino. Already having specific people in mind, Zaino said, “I’ve been trying to convince Lucy at the C-Store to be in a video too.”
If you have yet to see Langston’s viral video or are looking to see the showcasing of other staff members, check out New Haven Dining’s Instagram
