PR, social and influence for challenger brands
Earning attention that drives demand.
We work with challenger brands in food, drink, hospitality, retail, leisure, travel and consumer services, and the franchise groups scaling across them. When you cannot outspend the category leader, we turn earned attention into demand you can measure.
How we help
Five ways we earn the attention that moves your business.
Start with the one costing you most.
Every market opens once, and the audience you built elsewhere rarely travels with you. We start long before your doors open and carry it through the weeks after, so you open to people who already know who you are.
Proof: Six by Nico had 3,000 reservations in Manchester and almost 5,000 in Liverpool before the doors opened, with covers full from day one.
Search has stopped listing and started answering. We build the stories and moments that make you worth mentioning, then put them where journalists, feeds and AI answers are built from.
Proof: Boddingtons back on cask for JW Lees, landing from CAMRA and the Morning Advertiser to Time Out.
The buyer wants proof your product will sell before they give you the space. We build visible demand and evidence it as we go, so you hand over a proof pack a buyer can act on.
Proof: a Gemma Collins gin for Zymurgorium won their first major multiple listings with Co-op and Morrisons.
Grow fast and your brand stops looking like one brand. We define the few things you must be known for and build the system that carries them across every site and franchisee.
Proof: Chopstix kept unmistakable from 50 stores to more than 150, with 1.3bn earned reach in twelve months.
The people who get quoted are the findable ones, not the ones who know most. We turn what you know into a position worth quoting and build your platform around it.
Proof: Nicky Wake and Chapter 2, 38 pieces of national coverage against a target of 20, then the investment to launch in Australia and the USA.
How we work
Intelligence + Ideas + Influence = Impact
Intelligence
We start with your business goals, your audience and what they already care about, before anyone has an idea.
Ideas
Stories your audience wants to hear, built for the press, the feed and the places AI now reads from.
Influence
Media, creators and social working together, so you're seen wherever your buyers already look.
= Impact
Sales, listings, bookings and footfall you can point to.
Work that delivers impact.
See more work
Launch · Six by Nico
3,000
Reservations before Six by Nico Manchester opened, and almost 5,000 in Liverpool. Covers full from day one.
See more work →
Stand Out · Boddingtons for JW Lees
Sold out
Relaunched to national acclaim and sold out every week for the entire launch.
Read the case study →
Prove Demand · Macknade Fine Foods
£80k
Direct PR-attributed Christmas sales, plus a hamper that made £28k from 186 units.
Read the case study →
Launch · Kampus
0 → 20k
Instagram followers in six months from a standing start, and the site sold out.
Read the case study →
Be Consistent · Chopstix
1.3bn
Earned reach in twelve months, with one brand from 50 stores to more than 150.
Read the case study →
Build Authority · Chapter 2
20 → 38
Pieces of national coverage against target, then the investment to launch in Australia and the USA.
Read the case study →
What makes DATS different?
Senior-led, every account.
You get experienced people on your business, not juniors learning on your account. Independent experts who know their craft and know your industry.
Audience-first, always.
Most agencies start with what your brand wants to say. We start with what your audience cares about, which is the difference between a press release nobody reads and a campaign that earns coverage, conversation and sales.
The DATS Love Languages.
Our own client experience framework. You're matched with your top one or two love languages, the way you feel valued, and we build that into every interaction. It's why our clients stay.
What we do.
What we believe
Attention you earn beats attention you rent.
Marketing starts with your audience, not your brand.
Long-term beats short-term, every time.
Results matter more than activity.
We are boutique by design.
Tell us what you're building.
Whether you're launching, growing, repositioning or stuck on the next move, start a conversation and we'll tell you straight whether we're the right fit for you.
Start a conversationdaisy@downatthesocial.co.uk