Over a 10-year partnership, Carnsmedia built this five-generation bakery’s entire digital life from scratch — website, social media, TikTok and reels — and brought it a younger generation of customers.
Ferrara Bakery, America’s first Italian bakery, recruited Carnsmedia to connect with a younger audience and increase sales on Goldbelly.
This century-old bakery had no website, no social media, and no digital marketing — just exceptional pastries and five generations of tradition.
We partnered with Ferrara for 10 years. When we started, they had no way to sell pastries online — every pastry sold in their Little Italy bakery.
Through our partnership with Goldbelly, we created Ferraranyc.com — pastries shipped anywhere in America. Customers could buy on Ferrara’s site or directly on Goldbelly.com. One dual strategy driving customers to both.
But we started with zero email subscribers. Zero. So we created a free cookie tray giveaway — sign up, get weekly emails packed with pastry promos.
We used Mailchimp and WordPress together to build the list right on Ferraranyc.com — a strategic engine for generating subscribers and new business. It’s a combo we’ve mastered. From nothing to 70,000 real email subscribers. No purchased lists. Ever. All organic.
Those subscribers heard from us sometimes daily — and bought on Ferraranyc.com or Goldbelly.com. Thousands of online sales driven by email marketing.
Then we made viral TikToks and Instagram Reels to reach a younger generation — and threw open the bakery doors. For the first time ever, all of America could step inside a century-old Little Italy bakery — the same shop on historic Mulberry and Grand Streets, made famous in the movies — and watch master Italian bakers at work.
The crunch of a cannoli shell. Cream piped in by hand. Pignoli cookies. Rainbow cookies, bright and colorful. Struffoli tossed in honey in a copper pot. Panettone sliding out of a 100-year-old oven.
Things no one had ever seen. Our viral TikToks and Reels brought them to millions — and brand partnerships took Ferrara even further.
They just kept baking pastries. We handled the rest.
We teamed up with Goldbelly on seasonal sales and promotions — connecting the bakery with a whole new crowd of customers.
The weeks before Christmas are Ferrara’s busiest of the year. We wanted customers to order early: same exceptional quality, no last-minute scramble. So we created the annual 12 Days of Ferrara to lift sales through the post-Thanksgiving slump.
Starting December 1, a popular product went on sale for 24 hours. Then a new one the next day — for 12 straight days.
We sent daily emails to our 70,000 subscribers and made viral videos for each day’s deal. One Instagram Reel hit 1.3 million people.
The lowdown: we launched Ferrara into the digital marketplace with authentic storytelling that preserved a century-old brand’s history.
1.3 Million Views
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Questions, answered
How do I make money on Goldbelly?
Make the phone eat first. Drool-worthy shots of cannoli, tiramisu, and hand-scooped gelato turned scrollers into Goldbelly customers nationwide — one Reel alone hit 1.3 million views. Your pastries, shipping to doorsteps across America.
I see Carnsmedia works with a lot of family-owned restaurants and bakeries — is that a trend?
It’s a principle. We value family-owned businesses and the strong families behind them — they’re some of the most successful businesses out there, and they can live on for generations. Ferrara’s been around 135 years because the family keeps taking over, generation after generation. That’s the kind of story worth telling.
I don’t have a website or social media and I’ve never done marketing — where do I even start?
We’ve stood behind Ferrara for 10 years and built everything from scratch: new website, new social media, email marketing, advertising campaigns — the works. They just kept baking pastries; we handled the rest.
How do I make my business feel new again?
You’re sitting on the story — we just give it a stage. Ferrara’s been baking for 135 years, and we made it viral with TikToks and Reels that quadrupled the 25-to-34 crowd. Old recipes, new audience: heritage is the flex.
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