CASE STUDY · GROUND LEVEL LOUNGE
From an empty room to four storefronts in two years.
Client: Ground Level Lounge · Industry: Hospitality · Partners since: August 2024 · Services: Social content, brand videos, commercial spots, paid ads, in-store content
+412%
Revenue, year over year
2x
Seating capacity after the 2025 renovation
1 → 4
Storefronts, side by side
3K
Organic Instagram followers
The starting point
Ground Level Lounge is a hookah lounge on Makaloa Street in Honolulu. When we started filming in August 2024, it was a single storefront that hadn’t found its crowd yet. The room was mostly empty, and the DJ played from a folding table.
There were no customers to film, so staff filled the seats for our first shoots. The job was to make a brand-new lounge look like the place to be, before it was.
What we made
A monthly content shoot for their social channels, plus brand videos, commercial spots and paid ads. As the business grew, so did the scope. Since July 2025, we shoot every two weeks, with more than 40 shoots so far.
Every time the owner, Ro, reinvested in the lounge, we put it on camera: the renovation, the new DJ booth, the expanded lounge and the kitchen build-out. Customers watched the place level up.
The work reaches beyond the lounge’s own feeds. Every Hawaii’s Cheapest Vapes store across Oʻahu plays our videos.
BEFORE AND AFTER
Same lounge, two years apart
In 2025, Ro renovated and expanded the space, moved Hawaii’s Cheapest Vapes behind a hidden door, and doubled the lounge’s capacity.
The room
2024: a handful of guests and a DJ on a folding table.
2025: renovated, with twice the seating.
Now: every table taken.
The space
2024: a vape counter inside the lounge.
2025: the counter moved behind a hidden door.
Now: lounge seating, full on a busy night.
The DJ booth and the couches
2024: a controller on a folding table.
Now: a raised booth over a full room.
2024: staff filled the seats.
Now: real guests.
THE RESULTS
Growing with the business
Revenue is up 412% year over year, and the lounge now regularly turns customers away at capacity. The 2025 renovation doubled seating to meet demand, and the lounge ranks on the first page of Google for local hookah lounge searches.
One storefront became four. Ro leased the storefronts around the original and now holds four in a row: the expanded lounge, a kitchen on one side, Hawaii’s Cheapest Vapes in its own store on the other, and a second lounge next to the vape store. The kitchen and second lounge are under construction.
“Working with Ryo is very professional, and his videos are so great. We post them on Facebook and Instagram, and you can see our place is packed. I’d recommend him to any business looking for someone to do videos.”
Roldan Reyes, owner and CEO, Ground Level Lounge · three months into the partnership
What’s next
Ground Level Lounge is opening a second, two-story location in Kailua town. We filmed the first lounge from its empty early days, and we plan to be there for the second.
START A PROJECT
Opening something new?
A new venue, a new location or a new menu. Tell us about it, and we’ll set up a short discovery call.