He has been dubbed the ‘Doughnut Prince of Melbourne’, and at the age of 16 has already been in business for two years.

Morgan Hipworth started his business, Bistro Morgan, at the age of 14, balancing school books with doughnut cooks. The business name derived from when Morgan, from the age of seven, would cook his parents a 3-course meal — they would call it Bistro Morgan.

Morgan began supplying cafes around Melbourne before opening a pop-up store that sold 10,000 doughnuts and then, in 2015, Morgan opened up ‘bricks and mortar’ in Windsor — all while juggling full-time school work.

This amazing young person is filled with ambition and passion for what he does, not to mention sheer commitment to achieving his dreams. A key element of his success is social media, with apps like Instagram making a significant contribution to his achievements (and reputation).

Authentic sharing

These delicious doughnuts are perfect eye-candy to be shared and spoken about. It’s a social media gold mine with Bistro Morgan’s Instagram page having 54.5K followers, and growing. This hype has taken young Morgan on a media journey, appearing in everything from Broadsheet and Vice to the widely-read Herald Sun, just to name a few. The technical term for this is earned media; the result is thousands of dollars’ worth of free advertising.

Morgan’s doughnuts have the power to cause serious ‘FOMO’, with thousands of posts being shared across Instagram and other social platforms. If brands can crack into this platform by posting sharable content, it can only be beneficial. This communal Instagram experience is a key strategy in creating hype behind a brand, particularly one centred around food. People will go out of their way to experience something they have seen their friends and followers doing.

Smart phones have made it incredibly easy to document our every move on social media. We are part of an ever-open and always-connected society where we share who we meet, the food we eat and the things we do on the weekend.

This has become common practice and Bistro Morgan’s doughnuts are a prime example, creating the perfect ‘Instagram-able moment’. This is something just about every businesses strives for — genuine recognition from genuine customers. Having authentic brand communication generated by the customer is the new way to be recognised.