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We're Hiring
Hi! Are you looking for a job you will love? No day the same? Great clients and a fast paced, growing team?
Our mission is to create the best working environment, with the very best opportunties for our team, whilst delivering brilliant results for our clients and we would love to have you along for the ride as our newest account exec.
We are looking for a skilled and creative digital PR manager to help us to widen our offering and work with our senior team to set up a new division to work alongside our PR, CONTENT and SOCIAL teams.
Digital PR Manager
To work with our senior team to develop our digital PR offering by extending our SEO services working alongside the PR, CONTENT and SOCIAL team.
You will be great with clients and strong in developing strategy and delivering results driven campaigns that make a real difference to your clients' businesses.
You will have the opportunity to make this job your own, feeding into the wider business strategy and a pivotal time in our growth.
You will be competent with the tools required to do the job and able to set up new and appropriate systems to support the growth of the business and help build efficient teams.
Full-time, £25k-£35k
Account Executive
On a day to day basis our account execs spend their time creating media lists, reading media, writing, selling in and looking for opportunities for coverage. They know all the best influencers and are always on the hunt for the newest ones!
They are organised when it comes to saving coverage, evaluating it and reporting it back to clients. Their main daily goal is to deliver brilliant coverage for all clients.
Full-time, £20k-£25k
What’s in it for you?
Our team is constantly evolving as we grow, offering opportunities for everyone within it to develop as we do. We offer flexible, remote working. We get together regularly but you don't have to be in the office every day.
22 days holiday plus bank holidays.
Wellbeing and mental health support via Spectrum.Life
Inclusion in a company wide profit share bonus
Pension scheme
A brilliant social life with regular team get togethers and events
Training and support across all levels of the business
The opportunity for everyone to be involved in planning the future of the business
We want to hear from anyone with PR experience and a passion for getting results - get in touch with Daisy at hello@downatthesocial.co.uk or click the link below.
No agencies.
Work With Us.
PR & social media roles
We’ve been on a bit of a winning streak, bagging some amazing new campaigns and developing what we do for many existing clients.
With this in mind we’re growing the team.
We have an opportunity for a budding PR whiz to join us as our newest account exec. Ideally we would like someone with experience in an agency working on consumer product and business accounts. Must love the media, know who’s who in the influencer world and have a genuine passion for telling a client’s stories.
We have a small team working across a mix of clients from product to hospitality, place making and property, tech and professional services. The thing that ties together all of our clients is that they are brilliant people with amazing stories to tell and we love to work with every single one of them.
The role will be full time and the salary bracket starts at £20k depending on experience.
Our social team is smashing it driving likes, engagement and making mega content and we would like two new team members to help us offer even more brilliant campaigns to clients.
We are looking for a content creator with strong copywriting skills and a deep understanding of how to develop and bring alive a brand’s tone of voice. Someone with experience working with a broad variety of clients and brands in a busy agency environment.
They will work across organic and paid campaigns from conception to delivery and will be hands on with clients and work alongside the PR and social media team.
Creativity and knowledge of using social media for business is a must. Design skills are nice to have, but not essential.
The role will be full time and the salary bracket starts at £22k depending on experience.
We are also looking for a senior social media manager to work with our senior team to develop digital marketing and social media strategies and push our client offering forward.
They will be responsible for our own digital campaigns, feeding into the development and promotion of our online course, PR Shop and developing client accounts, strategies and results.
This could be a full or part time role and the salary will start at £30k depending on experience.
To apply get in touch on hello@downatthesocial.co.uk
Right To Walk
What More Can We Do?
One of my favourite things about working in Manchester is the community. Over the last few years I have found a core community of women in the city who take great pride in working together. Some of our lives overlap professionally, some socially, some both. We all have huge respect for one another and what we do and I have seen a phenomenal drive to help each other in any way possible.
This has led to a lot of shouty WhatsApp groups - often started by the unstoppable Lucy Noone. These groups have led to campaigns and friendships and a lot of late night posting. One thing I am so glad that it led to is Right To Walk.
When we describe our members as a ‘highly mobilised collective of women’ I’m not even sure it does them justice. We’ve formed a group of women with a passion for our city and the industries that make it what it is - in particular small business and hospitality. It’s hard not to be passionate about these two elements of Manchester and the streets and spaces that allow them to thrive.
When the unthinkable happened to Sarah Everard, I was shocked at how many women I know vocalised something that I understood only too well. Being afraid at night in public spaces is something I have normalised and I see now that this is true of every woman I know. Men too.
Our city, one of the most liberal and welcoming in the UK, is not safe. It has dark scary parts and it has wide open, bright parts which are equally unnerving. So the shouty WhatsApp group was pulled together to talk about what we could do.
We started with an online vigil but that wasn’t enough. We had started something that we weren’t ready to finish. That lead to myself, Helen Aldridge and Emma James coming up with What More Can We Do. An awareness campaign to shine a light on how women feel in the city as COVID restrictions began to lift and life returned to our streets.
The always supportive Nick Massey, from Forever Manchester, agreed to support the campaign financially meaning that we could buy digital ad space across the city and print posters for hospitality venues. You can find out more about it here in this piece from the Manchester Evening News.
You might recognise some faces you know - thank you so much to everyone who gave their time to make this happen and bring our campaign alive with the faces that make our community what it is.
What More Can We Do was designed to encourage those that live and work in the city to remember that making the spaces we inhabit safe is something for all of us. It’s not just the council’s job or the responsibility of the property owners, every single one of us can do more by just being aware.
As we opened up conversations it raised questions about what those working in hospitality could do. They understandably feel on the sharp edge of the late night experience, but they rarely have the appropriate training to help someone in distress. How do you recognise someone that needs help and what do you do to help them. With this in mind we hope to launch some practical sessions to take the campaign into a more hands on arena and make steps to define exactly what more we can all do to make our city safe.
Want to get involved? Get in touch with me or check out our website which has been designed by the incredibly supportive team at DS.Emotion - RightToWalk.co.uk.
Five New Clients – Down at the Social Celebrates Growth
We’re delighted to be reporting strong growth with a number of big national client wins recently.
HRH Group Harrogate
We’re delighted that we’ve been appointed by HRH Group Harrogate to manage PR for a number of its venues. The first is the newly launched Clementine’s Hotel in the heart of York.
Formerly Marmadukes, Clementine’s has been fully refurbished from top to bottom, inside and out, with over £1m spent transforming the property into a luxury boutique hotel. The boutique hotel, which is situated in the heart of York, officially opened on 22nd June providing an indulgent experience in a place where Parisian chic meets Yorkshire Heritage.
We kicked off the campaign with the launch of the hotel’s Chocolate Orange bedroom.
Bar Liber
We’ve solidified our London operation with a national launch for Islington-based disruptive wine bar, Bar Liber. The venue, which promises to make wine fun again with signature services such as the £100 cocktail The Empire Punch, has appointed Down at the Social to handle PR and social to promote on a regional and national level to consumer and trade media.
Bar Liber’s Empire Punch is the first full recreation of the infamous amazing wine cocktail in many decades. Sourced from Harry Johnson’s seminal Bartenders Manual, first published in the 1880’s, a combination of liqueurs, wine and Champagne including Hennessy Paradis Imperial Cognac, Dom Perignon 2010 Champagne, Patricius 6 Puttonyos Tokaji, Blandy’s 1980 Serical Madeira and Chateau Lafite 2008, the Empire Punch is worth a staggering £5k, and will be made in specialist batches, costing £100 per serving.
FGH Security
Further growing pir business and trade arm, Down at the Social has been appointed by Manchester and Lancashire based FGH Security. FGH is a UK-wide security business providing world-leading manned solutions for security and crowd management. It has defied the odds of the Covid-19 pandemic, seeing the business enter a new sector in supermarket security, resulting in an impressive £11.4 million turnover and 1500 jobs secured.
Down at the Social is tasked with telling this story and supporting further growth for the business, which we know well, having both worked with Manchester Pride for a number of years.
Japan Centre
Japan Centre is one of the largest and most influential Japanese food stores in Europe. It recently announced the launch of its easy-to-make DIY at home kits, created by its in-house chefs with over 20 years of experience to help customers create amazing tasting dishes and experiences in the comfort of their own home. Down at the Social has delivered campaigns promoting the brand’s at home kits and the stores UK first Mochi bar.
Cocoa Cabana
Finally, we will also be supporting chocolate brand Cocoa Cabana, which has two venues in Greater Manchester and a nationally renowned online shop selling artisan chocolates. Cocoa Cabana was recently selected as one of a handful of independent chocolatiers across the UK that Cadbury urged the public to support as the high street reopened after lockdown.
Daisy Whitehouse, MD at Down at the Social, said: “2020 was a rollercoaster of emotions for us. Enquiries went up, they went down, clients paused, clients came back on, then stopped again, others fired on through the pandemic growing and growing. It was stressful, but hugely rewarding. I have consistently been blown away by the dedication and enthusiasm my team has injected into driving our clients and our business forward.
“We set some big targets in 2021 even though we knew the year could go either way. We have focussed on working with businesses that we love, businesses that do great things, and this has really paid off. The five clients above are all very much dream clients.
“The FGH team have been friends and colleagues for a long time and it is huge to see them do so well. Stu, the innovation - and disruption - behind Bar Liber is an industry legend and it is an honour to be part of the realisation of his lifelong dream. We are proud to be working alongside Distinctly Aware who really do know their booze.
“HRH Group is an exciting one too because Phil who runs the business is a perfect fit with our values, he’s authentic, bold and 100% ambitious. Clementine’s is absolutely beautiful - people are going to love it. Cocoa Cabana makes hands down the best hot chocolate in the world and it is our mission to ensure that every single person in the North West, if not the world, knows it! Finally we have Japan Centre. A behemoth of a business - their groceries and meal kits are loved nationwide. It is a pleasure to generate coverage for such a brilliant quality product.
“We are so pleased to be working with each and every one of these clients. They are great people doing brilliant things and it makes us all happy to go into the (remote) office every day.”
Down at the Social has experience working with a number of national brands including KBK, Shoryu Ramen, OrderYOYO, Chopstix Noodle Bars, Seetec, Manchester Pride and Kays Traffic Management plus independent brands including Peru Perdu and The Lawn Club.
We're Hiring! Junior content editor role available.
Work with us!
We’re looking for a junior content editor to join the team. They will work across our client social accounts creating content, devising campaigns and managing channels.
Required skills include the use of photoshop and or other design software, video production, excellent copywriting, plus experience in managing clients and a multitude of social channels.
Most importantly they should be an enthusiastic, straight talking self starter that takes pride in and enjoys their job. A team player who can work alone but contribute to the wider agency. Every day we work together apart, as the team is currently remote. We intend to be back in a city centre location soon but with the flexibility for each team member to work where ever suits them.
We are a vibrant, sociable and hardworking team, and looking for someone who can hit the ground running.
The right candidate could be part time, full time or freelance. It's all about finding the right fit.
New Client Win - The Instaperfect ART B&B, Blackpool
Have you even worked in PR in the North West if you haven’t had a client in Blackpool?
I’ve been lucky enough to work with Madame Tussaud’s in Blackpool and for Freeport Fleetwood which is just round the corner on the Fylde coast. Emily launched the world’s fastest rollercoaster at the Pleasure Beach in a past life and Verity worked with the council on the Blackpool Resilience campaign.
Now we are delighted to have been appointed to work with ART B&B an exciting new boutique art hotel at the heart of the resort.
The hotel, which was set to launch in early 2020, has been shut for the majority of 2020 and 2021 following an initial soft opening period and is ready to welcome guests proper now and make a huge splash.
That’s where we come in.
The work we have done so far has been to clarify and refine the positioning for the hotel and how to describe its very unique position in the Blackpool accommodation market. Even the word unique doesn’t do you any favours because it’s so vague and what the hotel offers is so very specific.
It features 30 rooms designed by 30 different contemporary artists, it has suites with bars in and incredibly comfy beds right on the famous sea front.
It’s very different from everything else on offer in the town and our job is to get this across in a press release, because people still can’t visit, so messaging has been even more important than ever, making our Day One Workshop vital to getting started on the right foot.
Day One for us always starts with the audience. Who are they, where are they, and what do they want from or resonate with from the brand we are working with. We focus on nailing this from day one to ensure the campaign’s success.
When lockdown is over it’s expected that the flood gates will open and we’ll all be off on the much talked about staycation. So our brief is to help the team behind the hotel discover and engage with a tribe of British holidaymakers who want to indulge in the nostalgia of the North’s favourite seaside town, whilst enjoying this brand new, highly unusual, top quality boutique hotel and venue that promises to defy the expectations that may come with a stay in Blackpool.
The hotel’s strapline is Between Neon and Sea which evokes so many memories of the bright lights of the town, the long stretches of sandy beaches and the art housed within the classic Victorian seafront building.
Also as part of the messaging, the hotel, which is a CIC committed to investing back in the local community through art, invites guests to Support The Arts While They Sleep. As communities fight to survive and build back after a traumatic 12 months, a nourishing trip away to a place that feels nostalgic yet creative and intimate and a little bit luxurious is 100% attractive to me and I am sure it will be to others too.
What’s more the added bonus of helping artists that will have struggled throughout the pandemic would definitely motivate me to click Book Now.
It’s going to be a real treat and we can’t wait to see the hotel on the travel pages across the UK and get the bookings rolling in.
Research – What Consumers Want In 2021
Audience research – email audience@downatthesocial.co.uk to receive our exclusive report to inform your PR and marketing strategy for 2021.
Our questions for the BrandTrack Christmas 2020/ Jan 2021 changed a few times in the planning as the world seemed to go round in circles. One minute we were planning to ask people if they were going out or staying in, the next everything was closed and we could only meet with two other households.
So what did we find out?
January is usually a huge month in food and drink PR with dry January, Veganuary, new year, new you and Brits hitting the gyms. So much has changed as alcohol consumption is up, but so is healthy eating and of course gyms are closed!
So we refocussed and asked people what really mattered to them in these changing and challenging times.
Positively, the overriding message is one of optimism about the year ahead, particularly now that the vaccine rollout is progressing and there is a potential light at the end of the tunnel.
For businesses that manage to survive the difficult months ahead, there will likely be a real opportunity to capitalise, not only on missed celebratory occasions, but also an increasing desire amongst consumers to focus on their own health.
With answers around what we have missed, are we making plans to have a ‘second Christmas’ when hospitality opens again, did we stay dry (not really it turns out) or did we hit the booze harder?
31% of consumers did say that they are planning to reduce their alcohol intake in 2021, with 14% planning to do this for as many months as possible and 12% planning for the whole year.
We also found that health is high on the list of priorities for all consumers, with 74% planning to be healthier in general for at least a part of 2021.
If you would like to see the report with stats on consumer intentions for 2021, spending confidence, Valentine’s Day (that’s going to be quite different this year) and plans for 2021 get in touch via audience@downatthesocial.co.uk.
Why Just Like Taylor Swift, Our 2020 Was Folklore And 2021 Will Be Evermore
Hi 2021! We Are Ready For You!
It’s safe to say that looking back, 2020 seems like a bit of a whirlwind, it’s the year that none of us saw coming, and yet once it happened we realised it would never be forgotten.
It was one of those life-altering moments that essentially turned industries upside down and left us all in the dark, unable to live life as we once had.
For us here at Down At The Social, overnight we saw our beloved hospitality clients forced to close their doors, projects in the pipeline placed on pause and the PR industry as a whole feeling nervous about what was to come. It was a real case of fear or flight for us, and overnight we had shifted our priorities and stepped into the realm of the unknown, equipped with what we knew best, how to communicate and harness the power of the news agenda.
You could compare the change to that of Taylor Swift, an established pop princess who’s multitude of hits would sell out stadiums with crowds dancing enthusiastically and screaming ‘Shake It Off’ at the top of their lungs. Yet once the curtains closed and lockdown loomed, Swift found herself in essentially the same position, what would come next?
In her isolation came the conception of Folklore, now widely proclaimed a masterpiece - the soundtrack of our 2020. She described it as “starting with imagery. Visuals that popped into my mind and piqued my curiosity. Hushed tones of "let's run away" and never doing it. The sun drenched month of August, sipped away like a bottle of wine.”
Ultimately what Swift did was redefine her genre, and in doing so, created a masterpiece and her best work yet.
Just like her, we looked to redefine the very essence of what we did. Working with Masterchef champion, Simon Wood, we helped keep his profile up though a series of recipe videos tapping into the nation’s upset over the closing of Mcdonalds and KFC etc. His Big Mac sauce has been in the Daily Mail, Daily Star and Daily Express, OK mag and many more, achieving a staggering reach.
Stunts were not dead, and with our client Chopstix we did perhaps the craziest thing we’ve ever done, taking a real life WW2 tank to students trapped in university halls and bringing them Noodle Aid.
Exploring the idea of thought leadership, we positioned Simon Wood, Angus Pride, Managing Director of Peru Perdu and Jennifer Hughes, Brand and Marketing Partner at Peru Perdu as industry leaders who could provide comment on a number of issues facing the hospitality industry as a whole. This generated a steady stream of broadcast coverage, including Granada Reports, BBC North West Tonight, ITV News, Channel 5 News and Sky News, as well as comment in The Guardian, Independent, Daily Telegraph, Metro and Daily Mail.
Taking the Manchester Pride Festival virtual, we were all able to celebrate Manchester Pride safely and saw us travelling around Greater Manchester in a rainbow Bentley.
Most excitingly, we started our journey with the wizards at Zymurgorium, Manchester's first gin distillery and creators of never-seen before gins, gin liqueurs, rums and absinthe. From the production of ethically priced hand sanitiser to a collaboration with queen diva, Gemma Collins, it’s been one hell of a whirlwind.
Just like Taylor Swift, we were not done and as she announced her second secret lockdown album, Evermore, we too looked ahead to 2021 and building on the success of 2020.
Our client base has grown and we have some exciting new sectors to explore, including Kays Traffic Management, a family run business in Lancashire that works across the North West, Dr Maya, an ENT Surgical Registrar with an incredible story, Moneypenny Art, a kooky artist from Lancashire redefining the boundaries of art and Art B&B, a fully operational boutique hotel and venue in Blackpool and a community business which reinvests profits in arts and community projects..
At DATS we like to talk about values and purpose. We avoid ‘PR for PR’s sake’. In other words are we committed to generating coverage that drives real change and this is something we continue to do for our product placement clients including Shoryu Ramen, Zymurgorium, Diablesse Rum and Rudy’s Pizza, with a regular flurry of national hits!
We also have been working with Simon Wood on a really incredible initiative close to our hearts, #FeedingFamiliesFor30, helping to bring recipes made from cupboard essentials to everyone. We’ve been absolutely overwhelmed with the response so far and still have some exciting things in store.
Just like Taylor Swift, we still have plenty of stories to tell and campaigns to be generated and we look forward to doing so with a renewed passion and purpose for PR, something we all learnt during our Folklore year - we promise, the best is yet to come!
Feeding Families - The Evolution Of A Campaign
A couple of weeks ago the UK, and Twitter, went mad thanks to photos of the depressing and inadequate £30 lunch boxes being distributed to families in need.
We all got mad and shouted a lot. Then my friend and client John Magee got in touch to say we should actually do something. His idea was to get people buying £30 worth of food and sharing images on social. We can do this we thought.
At the same time Simon Wood had started sharing recipes for quick, easy meals using limited ingredients. So we got in touch and after a few voice notes we had a campaign.
Simon’s recipes really struck a chord and it was quickly clear that they were what people wanted to see. We all knew the £30 boxes weren’t good enough but the government seem to have fixed that problem.
But the provision of support and education and ideas is still poor. Cooking with tins and limited provisions, either from food banks, the lunch boxes, vouchers or your own money, can still be varied, nutritious and most importantly taste good. Everyone just needs ideas and Simon has bags of them.
So we shifted the focus of the campaign from the food boxes to be very much about the recipes and what great, tasty meals you can make with £30 worth of food.
Quite quickly we gathered momentum. Food banks and community groups asked if they could print out Simon’s recipes, people also asked where they could find them all in one place.
So we (me believe it or not!) have built an online resource – Feeding Families With Simon Wood – which we are constantly updating as Simon sends us recipes. The Spam Biryani is already iconic! Check it out.
Feedback from food banks has enabled us to develop the recipes. They told us that many people cook with just a microwave or kettle so Simon has created the appropriate recipes.
Also we are very aware that everyone isn’t on social media so the amazing people at Monster Outdoor (outdoor media specialists, delivering out of home advertising and marketing campaigns) donated an ad van today to take our message and Simon’s Spam Biryani recipe to the streets! The video is playing outside supermarkets all over the city today – let us know if you spot it.
The support we have been lucky enough to receive so far has been amazing. From chefs to celebs, media and friends and social networks, Manchester has got behind the campaign. For that we thank you. It’s so good to see that PR and social media can do great things.
We want to take it to the next step and create a printed resource to support people who don’t have access to the internet regularly. That will cost cash so we are on the hunt for a sponsor if anyone reading this can offer any help.
#feedingfamiliesfor30
PR & Social Media Campaign.
We’ve Joined Forces With Simon Wood To Help Families In Need
It has not gone unnoticed the current images circulated online of the inadequate free school meal boxes, supposed to be £30 worth of food and feed a child lunches for 10 days.
Once again, we find ourselves outraged by the failure to provide children with substantial meals, something they would receive if they were in school, but due to the current lockdown restrictions they cannot. We are also incredibly inspired by the work of Marcus Rashford and his continued fight to ensure that children across the UK are fed.
One of my favourite sayings is if not now, then when and if not me, then who? And this really stuck with me as I watched all this unfolding, this issue is bigger than all of us, it’s a national crisis that needs to be resolved and quickly. We’re talking about innocent children who know the pain and anguish that comes with hunger and it is our responsibility as human beings to step up and say this cannot continue.
Daisy’s friend, and our sometimes client, John Magee, centre manager at Princes Quay in Hull, came up with the idea after listening to a discussion about it on James O’Brien’s show on LBC. We talked about it as a team and decided that he was right, enough is enough, we had to do something! And so today, we launch our response, FeedingFamiliesFor30.
Joining forces with acclaimed Masterchef champion, Simon Wood, we want to showcase what £30 worth of food from a supermarket should actually look like, compared to the current free school meal parcels provided by the government and hopefully hold them to account and make them do better.
FeedingFamiliesFor30 invites people to show what £30 of food really looks like when done properly, buying dried goods, tinned produce and essentials from a supermarket of their choice, taking a picture and using the hashtag, before donating the goods to a local food bank.
We would have included fresh produce too but we don’t want it to go to waste as food banks wouldn’t be able to accept it. This didn’t feel right – but it is absolutely right for the government to offer both so that families can do the very best for their kids.
Simon Wood is also creating a series of quick and tasty recipes which can be created using dried goods and tinned produce, so that families can easily make them at home.
Simon Wood said: “This is a vital issue that we must all shine a light on and ensure that our government doesn’t let vulnerable children go without. We’ve all been in awe of Marcus Rashford and his ongoing fight to feed children across the UK and we hope that this initiative will provide them with further support. I’ve created these recipes to be really quick and easy, using just basic ingredients, something which parents can easily whip up at home.”
We’ve all pulled together as a team to get this initiative off the ground and now it’s over to YOU – let’s all join together and make a difference. No one should ever go hungry and we must ensure we do everything we can to ensure they don’t.
Follow us @we_are_dats_pr and @simonjwooduk for updates and be sure to tag #FeedingFamiliesFor30
Why Audience First...
We place the audience at the heart of everything we do.
We approach every client brief with an audience first approach.
What does this mean?
It’s widely believed that the most successful businesses are customer centric. I like this explanation of what that means and why.
With a digitalisation of the world, and the inevitable growth in data, we know more about consumers than ever and this makes it possible for brands to know more about what their customers want from them. Businesses like Amazon have quite literally built their entire offering around what customers want and need and put them first.
This is something that can turbo charge a brand’s PR and marketing. It seems pretty obvious that it is important to know your customer in order to market to them but so many brands start with thinking about their own product or story and what they want to say about it – not what the audience might want to hear.
When a brief lands on my desk my first thought is always – who is the audience for this campaign? Who do we want to engage with us, from media and influencers, to the end customer? And most importantly how do we get them to talk about it.
PR isn’t as simple as taking a product or service, writing a press release about it and sending it off to journalists. When something has been your baby for years you can be excused a bit of tunnel vision, but it’s our job as the consultancy to strip that back and draw out the essence of the story.
What we have to do is find that strand that will engage a customer on social media, the angle that journalists will love because it drives clicks and shares for their channels and ultimately clicks and shares on the client’s channels. This isn’t necessarily the angle the client comes to us with.
In order to do this we have to know a lot about consumers – and know that all consumers are not the same. It’s about tribes and cities and ages and likes. We know that the audience and the media in Liverpool is completely different from the audience and the media in London and we will tailor our approach accordingly.
We know that diners in premium restaurants expect something very different from those that frequent a QSR asian noodle bar – or that the same customer enjoys both in different ways.
We know that you can’t rely on regional media alone to target a regional, city centre living audience. Especially if you want to connect with foodies or business people.
We also know what we don’t know and how to find it out.
Since Lockdown 1 the world has seen an enormous shift in consumer behaviour, trends have moved online/ offline/ somewhere in between, back online etc. Some regions are scared of the virus, others are desperate to save their industries. We have tracked trends and attitudes with the help of research agency CGA and its BrandTrack surveys.
This has enabled us to support our clients as they have developed their offerings, both so that we can generate media coverage and social media engagement and so that they know that their products are right and will sell.
Our understanding and constant consumption of the media alongside our knowledge of UK wide trends and of what the wider industry is doing, puts us in just the right position to help clients with much more than just a press release.
We are confident that this audience first approach generates great cut through with media, more genuine relationships with consumers, better client relationships for us and most importantly means that clients meet their objectives.
Curious how it might work for you? Why not try it out for size with a Story Sprint workshop. In just a few hours we will interrogate your comms plan and draw out the angles that your audience will love. Get in touch to find out more.
Hands, Face, No Space
Audience Research.
Social Distancing & Rule Of Six Ignored By Almost Half Of 18 – 24 Year Olds As Brits Face Month Long Lockdown
Our latest audience research which was part of CGA’s October BrandTrack showed us that, in spite of the pain of the tiered lockdowns (before the current circuit breaker), as a country we still need to take regulations more seriously.
The results showed that the least adhered-to COVID-19 government rule is social distancing, with only 55 percent of consumers saying that they always adhere to it.
What’s more almost half of 18 – 24 year olds are also failing to stick to the rule of six – with only 58 percent following the rules outside and 55 percent inside.
It also revealed that in retail (75 percent) and hospitality (68 percent) settings the majority of Brits are sticking to the rules and wearing masks all the time. Yet 22 percent in retail and 27 percent in hospitality are still admitting that they don’t always wear a mask despite the rule being written in law.
Again the most resistance is coming from those aged between 18 and 34 who live in urban areas.
The questions which were put to the public just before the second national lockdown revealed a divided response to the restrictions on hospitality venues with 22 percent wanting to see tighter restrictions when venues reopen again.
7 percent of those questioned felt that the restrictions on hospitality venues were misdirected, with a further 11 percent agreeing they were too harsh. These views were generally stronger in Tier 3 lockdown areas where people were likely missing their interaction with pubs, bars and restaurants.
Today Andy Burnham has revealed that Manchester will most likely come out of the lockdown straight back into Tier 3 which will be hugely harmful to retail, hospitality, travel and leisure businesses.
For a month before this most recent lockdown we were actively supporting the Cancel the Curfew campaign because the tier system and the 10pm curfew seemed almost entirely designed to demonise hospitality businesses while statistics still show that as few as 3% of cases originate in a bar or restaurant setting. Hotels are closing and travel is being limited but you can see from this poll that it’s the basic rules that are just not working with a vast majority of the general public.
This isn’t the fault of the businesses that are being driven into the ground by curfews and closures. I hope that this second lockdown will convince people that they need to take the rules seriously or it will be their local pubs and shops that will continue to suffer.”
To join the campaign to cancel the curfew visit the Facebook page.
We generated coverage on Sky News, BBC Politics, in regionals across the UK and in the majority of the national trade and news titles.
New Client Win - Kays
Media Profiling & Social.
At DATS we like to talk about values and purpose. We avoid ‘PR for PR’s sake’… In other words are we committed to generating coverage that drives real change for a business.
Kays Traffic Management is really closely aligned with us in both values and purpose and for that reason makes a top client.
The family run business has a genuine heart. It is also a hugely profitable, sales focussed company with a commitment to growth. The team behind the business has an intrinsic belief that these two things are of equal importance and we love that.
We have been working with the senior team at Kays for just a few months and have been able to raise their profile hugely in a very short amount of time because they have so much going on.
Through media relations, to raise awareness of the great work the business delivers, and social media, to connect it with the communities that it supplies and supports, we have built a narrative around the 35 year old business to generate coverage in regional and national business and consumer media.
A narrative that hasn’t been constructed for PR – one that has just been kept under the radar. One that we know will attract buyers to work with Kays because they know the job will be delivered with the same commitment and authenticity.
This works because true company values are carried through every element of a business and make it what it is.
We’ve had amazing content to help us build this narrative so far – rainbows, poppies and children’s holiday clubs.
Kays is a company that trains its teams, looks after them, helps the communities that it operates in and supports those in need. Big companies call this CSR, Kays calls it being human.
This week the company has been painting poppy signs with the wording ‘Lest We Forget’ near war memorials across Bolton, or on roads where cancelled Remembrance Sunday parades would have taken place. Kays Traffic Management, offered to install the markings free of charge as a way of helping residents remember those who have died in conflicts around the globe.
Shaun Hargreaves, commercial director at Kays, said; “2020 has been a busy time for us and we felt that now was the time to engage in some serious marketing. Down at the Social has provided us with the clarity we needed to know what we want people to know about the business and now the team is doing a great job in getting the message out there. I never thought I would see our road markings in the Daily Mail but that just might be the case this weekend!”
For more information on KAYS and its current projects have a look here.
Trans Rights Are Not Controversial
We Fight For LGBTQ+ Equality.
Warning – this isn’t about PR or communications, it’s about people.
In 2015 I drove Sir Ian Mckellen in the Manchester Pride parade – I have mentioned this quite a few times and here is a BBC article confirming it.
Over that weekend I came to understand why the Pride organisation I worked for was so important.
Through the media interviews that I accompanied Sir Ian to, I listened to the story of the life of a national treasure, known to many as Gandalf, who had fought hard to be where he is. A man who is an activist and also one of the greatest actors of our time.
First we went to BBC Breakfast. My favourite memory is Sir Ian trying to galvanise the make-up artists into action to save the BBC. An institution that has supported so many artists.
Later that day – after walking the parade for four hours – he did an interview with the BBC again for Sunday Morning Live. He talked in detail about the prejudice he faced and why he became an activist to fight for his, and other people’s, rights.
The BBC was vital in helping us do the work of Manchester Pride that weekend in celebrating and campaigning for LGBTQ+ rights and equality.
To me the BBC is a bastion of values, a place for education and a beacon for the UK and what we stand for. My Dad wouldn’t let us watch ITV news – it just wasn’t allowed. What’s more BBC World Service is the world’s leading international broadcaster providing programmes and content in English and 27 other languages.
We pay that much debated licence fee because the BBC represents us and it serves us. We have always known that it’s run by middle class cis white men but it has served many voices and it has challenged so much prejudice.
This week’s statements appear to say that the BBC now sees the fight for equality as too controversial.
I have worked with amazing teams from across the organisation, in particular BBC NWT and BBC Radio Manchester, to promote Manchester Pride to the regions for six years. Many of the people within these organisations are LGBTQ+ and they have been proud to be able to support their communities and join the fight.
The immediate reaction across social media was that this must be a mistake but as time goes on it doesn’t appear that this is true.
The BBC is the world’s leading public service broadcaster We’re impartial and independent, and every day we create distinctive, world-class programmes and content which inform, educate and entertain millions of people in the UK and around the world.
I can’t help but feel that the BBC is failing in its commitment to viewers in considering that LGBTQ+ rights are a matter of partiality – they are not.
It’s staggering that no one has spoken out to right this yet from within. ALL LGBTQ+ rights are human rights. How many times do we have to say this? Every year as we handle the PR for the Manchester Pride Festival, Manchester Pride faces the question from media – do we still need Pride – and every year Manchester Pride says YES. And Manchester Pride is right.
Discrimination exists everywhere, sadly even in a great institution like the BBC.
This move not only alienates staff and tells them they can’t be themselves, that they can’t march for equality, but it also makes a very dangerous statement to people who do not value equality. People who believe that an LGBTQ+ person’s right is not equal to their own can see the institution that we have all grown up taking a lead from not valuing it either.
As I have been writing this piece, more information has been released saying that the rules relate to so called controversial protests such as those we have seen recently relating to black lives matter or trans rights.
How can these be seen as controversial? Gay rights were considered to be controversial once, womens rights were controversial once – now we are lucky that they are a fact of life. The world was flat too once you know…
How can the BBC say that its staff cannot fight for the rights of trans people when we are trying to get to a place where trans people are considered to be equal by all – because they are. The BBC is not allowing trans people and their allies the right to protest when we had that right before them and that right was the catalyst for change.
This rule questions the validity of identities. Our company values state that we are authentic, that every member of the DATS team brings their whole self to the table. It’s important for our work but most importantly for our sense of who we are as people. An organisation that cares about its people accepts them for who they are and supports them in that, no matter what, even if that means a fight.
This whole thing stinks of systemic prejudice and fear and wipes out whole selves. We cannot sit back and let it go unchallenged.
To read the opinion of someone a lot more eloquent than me – read this article by Jamie Windust on Gay Times.
*I think it is important to state that I speak for myself here not Manchester Pride which is a client.
Do You Need A Third Space
Monocle The Chiefs
Last week I was lucky enough to attend Monocle’s The Chiefs conference.
I’ve already summarised my learnings on LinkedIn but wanted to further explore the idea that InnHub La Pont aims to offer of a third space for people of all types to gain that much needed time and space for perspective.
You can read more about it here – they have Lord Norman Foster on board which is quite amazing in itself for a tiny village in the mountains.
This need for time and space, and learning from other people’s experiences, is so important for business in this moment. We’ve stepped out of the tunnel vision of our 9 – 5 (HA) office existence and we’re staring down the barrel of a whole new way of working.
I won’t say new norm. No one needs that after today.
But I do think that we have an opportunity to really make the most of this period of change. I worked from Italy and St Moritz last week and it didn’t affect my ability to deliver for my clients but I did try and make the most of the event and switch off from the day to day noise of slack, email, Twitter, Whatsapp etc and really immerse myself in what I was hearing.
Now many of us work at home and live at home and we only see our colleagues on Zoom when we do get together it’s so important that we make the most of this time.
We deliver workshops for brands and businesses to help them create the clarity they need to plan or solve problems. We are able to deliver these workshops virtually thanks to tools like Mural but we like to try and meet IRL when we can. This time together as a team to discuss ideas and drill down on strategy and priorities is even more important than ever.
If we can find this third space outside of home and office where we can switch off and focus we always see better results. This is why we try to encourage clients to dedicate as much time as possible to a workshop with no devices or meetings to distract them.
We also suggest that we take the time somewhere interesting and inspiring. My current favourite location is Another Place a hotel in the Lake District. Stand up paddle boarding in the lake, gourmet food and mountains to scramble up never fail to inspire. Sound like something you need to take time for?
Virtual or IRL? What’s your plan to deliver and promote your event?
LGBTQ+ Events
Events are starting to happen again. I have been invited to a bar opening and a bowling alley launch in the past two weeks.
But the government has launched the rule of six and potentially put back the opening of conference halls and other large scale event businesses.
Politics aside we know there is no straight forward way to plan right now. Events need to be flexible and events teams must be nimble, know exactly what consumers want and most importantly be aware that what they want could, and probably will, change at any minute!
We’re experiencing this first hand every day and whilst it’s tough we’re embracing the challenge and focussing on how we deliver impact in these constantly changing times.
Event production has changed massively but the way we promote events hasn’t changed at all. The holy grail in leisure and destination PR has always been broadcast – TV coverage in particular can reach the right audience better than any other channel.
During the launch of LEGOLAND Discovery Centre (longer ago than I want to admit) a slot on This Morning sold tickets instantly. Regional TV coverage around the search for a Master Model Builder saw Paul Crone chuck a bucket of LEGO down the Lowry Hotel steps (guess who had to pick it all up again) and immediately drove thousands of people to the website to find out more.
More recently, our sixth Manchester Pride Festival was very different than those that came before – the Alternative Manchester Pride Festival was 100% online. Covid times meant no parties on the cobbles of Canal Street or performances from international artists in Mayfield.
What it did mean was three days of content spanning with artists delivering live gigs in their bedrooms and a human rights conference giving vital air time to hugely important conversations with Munroe Bergdorf.
Every year we aim to kick off the festival with a day of broadcast media on Friday to make sure that everyone in Manchester and further afield knows about the festival. We do this by bringing TV and radio to the amazing festival sites as Mark, the chief exec, does interview after interview. We saw no reason that this year should be any different.
The live content that formed the links in the festival’s content on United We Stream GM was all filmed from our studio in the Bungalow at Kampus, overlooking the Gay Village, so we used this as a base for media.
Mark was able to talk about why the cancellation of Pride events is having such an impact on LGBTQ+ people, what it means for the charity to have to cancel its flagship event and promote the work it continues to do on Channel 5 news, ITV Granada Reports and BBC North West Tonight. He was also lined up to do Good Morning Britain and BBC Breakfast but the news agenda changed last minute.
I was proud to see regional and national media giving a voice to these issues and communities and that we were able to generate valuable impact for a client that means a lot to me.
Working with the Manchester Pride team for so many years has enabled us to know them, to build strong relationships and deliver what will get cut through with media. This is the essence of how we feel a client/ consultancy relationship should be.
But without great media contacts and genuinely engaged contacts across the board these results would be harder to achieve.
Do you have an event to promote be it virtual or IRL? We can help you promote it and ensure your audience turns up or tunes in.
Tik Tok, Setapp and Klarna...
Campaign Hits & Misses.
Campaign Hits & Misses
This week has been a resounding hit! So with that in mind, our account executive Lottie checks out some of the creative hits in more detail.
TikTok Launches Largest Ever Global Campaign
TikTok has launched its largest ever US advertising campaign as the app faces a potential ban in the US. The new campaign will highlight the impact that the app has on millions of Americans by celebrating the TikTok community and the creators who have made TikTok part of culture. The campaign will feature a short video which shows users participating in challenges and some of the world’s most popular online trends. TikTok wrote in a blog post on Tuesday, “As an idea catches on, so too does its impact across borders, cultures, languages and communities”. I love the idea of this campaign and how it offers value to TikTok’s audience.
Droga5 London Creates Brand New Campaign for Setapp
Setapp’s new campaign is called “Don’t Get Sidetracked. Get Setapp” and revolves around three comic films, directed by award-winning director Jeff Low, to show the dramatic consequences of not finishing something. In the film ‘Disappearance’, a magician makes a man disappear but gets sidetracked before bringing him back, so his wife is left searching for him for the rest of her life. The campaign has launched globally and across social channels to target a wider audience. I love the humorous reminder in this campaign that really portrays what Setapp is all about.
Klarna Launches Virtual Festival
Klarna, Europe’s most valued fintech company, has announced their first virtual festival which is taking place on 20th-23rd August. Klarnival will bring the festival straight to the comfort and safety of your own home by broadcasting the talents of 20 music acts via Facebook and Instagram Live. There will also be a range of themed competitions, events and masterclasses from brands including Morphe and Go Outdoors. Klarna will be making a donation to independent UK charity ‘Help Musicians’ to provide help and opportunities for musicians during this time of hardship.
Posted: 21.08.2020
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Tech positivity, New York Women's Foundation and Badoo.
Campaign Hits & Misses.
Our account executive Lottie Milk looks through campaign hits & misses of the week! It’s been an unusual one to say the least, following the recession announcement and the A-level results shambles but what else has been happening in the world…
HITS
Billie Eilish Celebrates Gen Z Tech Positivity In Deutsche Telekom Campaign
Billie Eilish features in Saatchi & Saatchi London’s new #WhatWeDoNext campaign for Deutsche Telekom, which offers an uplifting theory on young people and their use of tech. A study found that nearly three-fourths (69%) of young people believe that their generation is frequently misunderstood, with the campaign aiming to capture Gen Z tech positivity and demonstrate the power and potential of youth in creating a better future. I personally love that the film is narrated by Billie whose words and music about mental health are very important to Gen Z.
New York Women’s Foundation Is Telling People To ‘Trust Black Women’ In New Campaign
An outdoor campaign by the New York Women’s Foundation, an anti-racist organisation focused on supporting minority women, is asking New Yorkers to ‘Trust Black Women’. The headline on billboards and newsstands around New York is instructing passersby to “Trust Black Women” as a way of supporting them and elevating their roles in society. I think this campaign designed by Lana Matsuyama is a good way of raising awareness that diversity is still lacking and fighting for change.
MISS
Badoo Thanks People For Sacrificing Sex During Covid Pandemic
Badoo pays tribute to masturbators for sacrificing sex for your country. The dating app Badoo has launched a new campaign to celebrate the people who have selfishly resisted to have sex during the global pandemic. London based agency The Romans has teamed up with British illustrator Alice Skinner, known for her ‘tongue-in-cheek’ illustrations, to create a range of colourful slogans including ‘Flick For Victory’ and ‘Make Do And Masturbate’. The campaign appears on billboards and posters around London as well as on social media, however lots of followers have responded negatively to this campaign calling it a ‘disgrace’ and ‘inappropriate’ to display overly sexualised imagery in public.
Is it too soon for Christmas to be cancelled?
DATS Audience Research.
Christmas parties, Eat Out To Help Out, live events and holidays – find out what Brits are thinking and what they have planned. Get free access to our bespoke audience research following the reopening of the hospitality industry… email audience@downatthesocial.co.uk.
Our third piece of research carried out with CGA has just landed and the most striking stats show us that Brits are just not comfortable planning ahead and the biggest loss yet could be the iconic work Christmas party.
Instead of worrying about embarrassing moments with the boss the morning after, it’s infection and social distancing that might signal the end of the great British tradition of work Christmas dos.
When asked about the future only 33% of Brits feel they would attend a work Christmas party.
Also 60% are not prepared to book tickets to bigger events like gigs or festivals until at least next year. Only 40% have booked a holiday and 44% see hols abroad as more risky, yet 39% still favour hotels over private accommodation (29%).
The day to day hospitality industry is starting to see green shoots but the nation is divided as 55% are still staying away from bars, restaurants and pubs.
Those that are going out are making a huge difference as 70% of them have been out more than three times. And of course its the great British pub that is getting them the most excited!
The remainder of the report explores who feels safe where, what they want to see more of and what they plan to do in the next 12 months. Get in touch if you would like to see it.
Heartbreaks and Hangovers – a love letter to Manchester
Great Food Campaigns.
Penny Lynch – the legend behind Didsbury’s favourite deli, A Taste of Honey – isn’t afraid to admit that she has had her fair share of both and she’s on a mission to celebrate them through food and music.
The one thing that has come out of the pain and worry of the past four months for me is the understanding of what a strong community, or group of communities, we have here in Manchester. In particular the people behind our hospitality and events industry have shown what a creative, hardworking and collaborative bunch they are.
The media outlets of the city have given everything they can to support operators and their PR and marketing teams, a crack team of pros came together to create EatWellMCR and entrepreneurs like Penny donated time and resources to help them feed everyone from the vulnerable to NHS staff.
There have been countless other initiatives that I could mention but the reason I mention this one is because Penny is hoping to create something special which will embody this spirit. A book of memories anchored in our love of food and music and how we have relied on them to help us recover from heartbreaks and hangovers.
The aim is to publish a collective of beautiful stories, playlists and recipes that will get those suffering from a broken heart or too much tequila (me?) through the toughest of days.
We are asking everyone who holds this city as close as we do to contribute so please send us your stories to heartbreaksandhangovers@downatthesocial.co.uk and we will include them in the book.