case study

Tonight Josephine

The task

In August, PLPR was appointed to launch Tonight Josephine’s newest cocktail bar on Baldwin Street, Bristol. 

As a brand already established in London, Birmingham and Cardiff, Tonight Josephine wanted to make some noise of its opening to the partygoers of Bristol. 

 PLPR was tasked with following the brand's story of Empress Josephine, showcasing her sass, hustle and empowerment to the females of Bristol.

The brief:

• Gain local media coverage of the bar launch

• Conduct an activation day to publicise the venue

• Work closely with influencers to promote the new venue

• Run a VIP launch night with media and influencers

The plan

Media relations

Regional press release – At the start of the campaign, PLPR issued a regional press release to local media to publicise the opening and Tonight Josephine’s offerings.

Media reviews – Once Tonight Josephine opened, PLPR organised media visits for review pieces on regional new sites such as Bristol Live and Bristol 247.

Competitions

Bottomless brunch competition – To promote Tonight Josephine’s ‘Harry Styles Bottomless Brunch’ offering, PLPR organised a media competition with Bristol Live. Bristol live received 50 exclusive tickets to Tonight Josephine’s first bottomless brunch. These we given to the winners of the competition.

500 doughnuts were sampled in three central Bristol locations from a TCC:B branded bike by high energy bar staff. Everyone who received a doughnut got handed a free cocktail, generating data capture for TCC:B.

We promoted the sampling activity on local event guides What’s on Bristol, Best of Bristol, Secret Bristol and Bristol Live. Single doughnuts were hand delivered to local influencers to generate social posts and to drive traffic to the @londococktailclub Instagram page.

National story

The Porn Star Martini Doughnut gained national coverage as a world’s first product. National titles sampled the doughnuts and coverage was achieved with the likes of FoodBible, HELLO! and Heart FM promoting the brand name nationally.

We ran a competition to win a box of PSMD’s and a round of free cocktails on the TCC:B website. This was a data capture project that captured entrants’ details for remarketing.

Launch event

Our strong relationships with regional media, influencers and local businesses allowed us to create an oversubscribed launch event leaving everyone with a night to remember.

We used our network of lifestyle and hospitality contacts to invite food and drink reviewers, fashion and lifestyle influencers, media contacts and local businesses to the launch event. The response was entirely positive with over 90% of those invited attending.

The experience delivered by the TCC:B team and PLPR ensured that everyone had a memorable time. 500 people arrived to party, including JJ Goodman (Founder), who poured cocktails while standing on the bar, Sarah Willingham (Investor and ex-Dragon) and TCC:B stakeholders.

The results 

• Media coverage: KPI 4 / Achieved 8

• Event attendees: KPI 300 / Achieved 500

• Competition signups: KPI 300 / Achieved 400

• Social media influencer posts: KPI 50 / Achieved 160

• Doughnuts sampled by public: 500 with free cocktail vouchers and data capture

• Doughnuts sampled by national media: 5 media houses

Sophie Evans, Marketing Manager, The Cocktail Club Group

“Pam Lloyd PR did a great job of bringing the vision of a Porn Star Martini Doughnut to life. What started as an idea for our Corn Street opening, soon became a reality with them securing the collaboration with Pippin doughnuts, through to obtaining national press. For a regional opening, this exceeded our PR expectations and helped drive approx. 400 competition entries resulting in data capture, a key aspect of the campaign.

“The launch night was phenomenal and one of the biggest parties seen for The Cocktail Club group. With a great turn out from media and influencers, we collectively managed to spread the word of the new club to the target audience.”

case study

Peter’s Yard

PLPR has been working with Peter’s Yard since January 2019 to promote its award-winning Swedish inspired crispbread range to trade and consumer audiences. We have worked alongside the Peter’s Yard marketing and communications team to introduce the product range to the media, launch a brand new sourdough flatbread range, run press events and share the business story with the food industry and consumer media. 

Since starting work with Peter’s Yard, we have secured more than 60 pieces of national and regional media coverage including Sainsbury’s Magazine, delicious, Olive, BBC Good Food, the Daily Mail, Stylist, Woman & Home, Closer and The Grocer. As well as this, the agency has submitted Peter’s Yard for several awards; including the Food & Drink Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Natwest) in 2019 (shortlisted), and the ‘Amazing Women Awards 2020’ in Woman & Home magazine on behalf of Wendy Wilson-Bett the co-owner of Peter’s Yard who was a finalist. 

PLPR has supported Peter’s Yard work to put crispbreads into the hands of key food writers and journalists. This sampling has spread the word about the brand and the variety of flavours in the range. Prominent target media including Karen Barnes (delicious editor), Fiona Beckett (Guardian columnist) and Lulu Grimes (BBC Good Food) have all written and shared information about the brand on social media as a result of product sampling.

Peter’s Yard has built up a reputation amongst food writers and journalists as the best crispbread on the market and “the world’s best crackers” (Karen Barnes, delicious.) to go with cheese. The media is always eager to hear the latest news about the business or what the next new product is going to be. 

PLPR is currently supporting Peter’s Yard with media relations, product launches, influencer marketing and business to business communication.

case study

fresh & naked

fresh & naked was launched in May 2010 by grower’s G’s Fresh as new way to enjoy baby leaf salads. The brand is sold exclusively in Tesco stores in the UK. fresh and naked salads only use the best tasting premium little leaves. The brand produces an unwashed field cut product. Handling the leaves as little as possible with no washing process ensures a drier less damaged leaf, that lasts longer. 

PLPR has supported the fresh & naked brand since 2013 through digital and print media relations, management of social media channels and brand content creation. The campaign has increased shopper awareness of the brand and its attributes. 

Because brands are relatively few and far between in fresh produce, fresh & naked is good fun to work on. It makes it more straightforward to work with other brand partners and makes for interesting new content. The Peter Rabbit 2 movie, a collaboration with SONY and fresh & naked allowed us to create several fun assets for the brand (gallery below).

fresh & naked NPD also regularly creates new seasonal mixes such as Sweet Summer Salad Mix, a charity partnership between fresh & naked and The Bumblebee Conservation Trust. This raised funds for the charity from pack sales. The Urban Mix, produced in partnership with Growing Underground, is a regular feature on the fresh & naked calendar and is always well received on social.

case study

Asparagus

PLPR has run the Asparagus PR campaign for the last 20 years, promoting the crop in the UK season and latterly during import season too. Using a variety of campaign tactics underpinned by industry data, we have contributed to a significant uplift in demand for asparagus.

In 2001 Kantar data showed 2.1% of UK households, just over 480,000, bought asparagus. That figure now stands at 35% or 9.4 million households. With the consistent support of the UK grower association, retailers getting alongside the industry and a long term, coherent approach, this is one of the longest running and most successful fresh produce PR campaigns.

Over the last two decades, the UK season campaign has evolved to accommodate new trends and shopper habits. From consumer sampling and celebrity chef events to influencer marketing and media relations, the campaign message has remained consistent. Buy, cook and enjoy British asparagus in season.  

The campaign has made British asparagus season a fixture on the media, consumer and hospitality calendars. From modest beginnings with the support of 3 growers the campaign is now supported by over 100. We have delivered over 5,000 pieces of media coverage and reached millions of shoppers; through national, regional and local media; in newsprint, magazines, broadcast and online.

Outside the British season, we run the campaign to support imported crop. Consumer demand remains strong for the product after the traditional end of the season on Midsummer’s Day, 21st June, and before St George’s Day 23rd April, the traditional start to the season. British growers have been successful at extending the season in some years to start in March and finish in early July. Once this crop is gone we are reliant on asparagus from elsewhere. From July to mid March we focus on asparagus’ health attributes.

case study

Isle of Wight Tomatoes

For the past three years PLPR has been lucky enough to work with the visionary team at Isle of Wight Tomatoes. Tasked with growing the brand’s social media following on and communicating why Isle of Wight Tomatoes’ are the best in the land, the team set to work creating content, selling in stories and enjoying tomatoes in a wide and wonderful variety of shoot day recipes.

The Isle of Wight Tomato Instagram account quickly emerged as a significant channel. In addition to growing awareness with the target media, trade and shoppers the channel has also emerged as a driver of sales. In 2020 followers increased from 6k to 16.5k as online shoppers, chefs and food writers discovered, shared content and bought the products.  

The boxes of tomatoes are unmistakeable and often posted with ‘the best’ in the caption.  The high point of the 2020 season was when the team had tomatoes delivered to Jamie Oliver. He talked enthusiastically about the products, encouraged his followers to try them and included a swipe up link to the Isle of Wight online shop.  

The 2020 season was as challenging for Isle of Wight Tomatoes as it was for businesses worldwide.  3 weeks before the start of the UK season, 95% of hospitality custom disappeared in the space of a 5 days. PLPR worked with the client as they pivoted the business to launch a direct-to-consumer box scheme. PLPR promoted the box scheme to media in print and online and on social. From 50 box sales a week in April, sales increased to over 1,100 a week at the height of lockdown. 

We’re all ruined for life for all other tomatoes.  This is a small price to pay for having such a fabulous campaign to work on! 

case study

Arctic Iced Coffee

The iced coffee category was growing fast in 2018. Starbucks, Jimmy’s Iced Coffee and Emmi’s were the recognised brands, made with long life milk to sell as ambient products. Arctic Iced Coffee is made with fresh milk, sold from the chiller. The client’s contention was that their product tasted better. Jimmy’s Iced Coffee, in particular, was felt to be ‘All sizzle and no sausage.’ A brand with a great image but an inferior product behind the hype.

In 2019, PLPR was appointed by Crediton Dairy to work on a two year brand relaunch campaign to promote the Arctic Iced Coffee range to media and shoppers. Our job? To communicate Arctic’s own sizzle.

Working closely with the Crediton marketing team, PLPR implemented a media relations campaign launching the range as new. We also supported the brand’s experience marketing campaign and social media marketing.

We secured product features in high circulation weeklies for the core latte and caramel latte products as well as extra shot and protein shot speciality lines. The media sampling increased target consumer awareness and supported sales growth which saw Arctic Iced Coffee sales overhaul its nearest competitor by the end of the first year. 

Coverage appeared in 15 target titles such as The Daily Star, Real People, Take a Break, That's Life, Woman and Women's Running, with a combined audited circulation over 1 million copies.

For Year 2 plans were adapted with the arrival of national lockdown in March. Crediton Dairy took the opportunity to launch the 1ltr format for Latte and Caramel Latte for consumers to enjoy at home now they could not have it on-the-go. PLPR secured additional coverage for the products in national media. We also implemented a design competition to produce a bespoke carton design for the brand. This was in partnership with a student mental health charity to raise awareness of increasing mental health issues as a result of the challenges of lockdown.

Finally, we were commissioned to create content for the Arctic Iced Coffee social media feed featuring both lifestyle and serving ideas. This was definitely the tastiest part of the job. If you don’t believe us, try it for yourself.