How DATS Made Girls On Board Famous

What is Girls On Board?

An approach to help girls between the ages of 7 and 18 navigate the often troubled waters of friendship problems.

Girls on Board is an approach which helps girls, their parents and their teachers to understand the complexities and dynamics of girl friendships. The approach empowers girls to solve their own friendship problems and recognises that they are usually the only ones who can.

Girls on Board sessions are non-judgmental and reflective, designed to raise empathy amongst the girls and it is that empathy that fuels the search for harmony and resolution. By empowering girls to find their own solutions, parents need worry less, schools can focus more on the curriculum and the girls learn more effectively – because they are happier.

What was the brief?

DATS began working with Andrew in February as a pro-bono client to help promote Andrew as a leading education expert, promote and raise awareness of the educational workshops, and two of his books; ‘When Girls Fall Out’ , and his most recent ‘Working with Boys’.

Andrew wanted us to help build his brand and position Andrew as an industry and thought leader. He wanted to create awareness of Girls on Board and its approach and generate interest in the educational workshops, and the books. Based on this, DATS created a specific set of KPIs aimed at fulfilling these key business objectives, over a six-month period.

Challenges overcome

One of the biggest challenges DATS faced was to cut through some of the noise and bring Andrew to the forefront in what is a very crowded topic.

Educational issues are high up on the news agenda, day in, day out, and with the news agenda being heavily focused towards government and its decisions on education, DATS held a client meeting initially with Andrew to establish his breadth of knowledge.

DATS then formulated a topic list, and bank of content, that we could use should an opportunity present itself for reactive comment.

Our process – what we do differently to other agencies

Yes, we get great coverage, but that’s not what makes us different. Every detail of what we do has a clear strategy and the results speak for themselves. We analyse every last detail to ensure we consistently deliver killer content, build up brand awareness and show exactly how Andrew Hampton is shaping the future for girls in education.

How DATS Helped Oakhill School

What is Oakhill School?

Situated in the Ribble Valley, Oakhill School is an outstanding rated independent Catholic Day School and Nursery open to all children from babies to 16 years old.

What was the brief?

DATS began working with Oakhil School in 2022 when they were in need of digital marketing support, including email marketing, and newsletter mail shots as well as PR support in order to help promote the values of the school, its achievements and its good news stories.

DATS were also tasked with SEO work, social media marketing and PPC.

Challenges overcome

The Ribble Valley has numerous outstanding private schools and so the challenge was to ensure Oakhill stood out from the crowd showing the audience the enormous benefits of attending a small, family run school.

There is also sensitivity around using photographs of children on Social Media and for PR purposes and the correct permissions from the parents had to be confirmed.

Our process – what we do differently

Yes, we get great coverage, but that’s not what makes us different. Every detail of what we do has a clear strategy and the results speak for themselves.

We analyse every last detail to ensure we consistently deliver killer content, build up brand awareness and deliver Oakhill's business objective's effectively.

How DATS Made Chapter 2 Famous

“DATS has used its skills and contacts to generate interviews and profile pieces across all areas of media; newspapers, magazines and TV. The coverage has generated the vital sign-ups and sales to get my start-up off the ground and quickly build a national, soon-to-be international, brand. DATS delivered fab PR coverage that has played a huge part in the success of Chapter 2.”

Nicky Wake - Founder of Chapter 2 Dating

Our KPIs for the first 6 months

• 500 app users before December 2022

• One primetime TV interview

• 20 pieces of national coverage

Our results so far

• 2,500 active app users by June 2023

• 38 pieces of national coverage

• Interview and profile with Steph’s Packed Lunch

• Success of Chapter 2 UK campaign has secured investment to launch in Australia and the USA.

Impact of coverage

What is Chapter 2?

Chapter 2 is a dating app built by widows and widowers exclusively for widows and widowers. It is the brainchild of Manchester based Nicky Wake who herself was widowed aged just 49 when her husband tragically died.

It was because of Nicky's own experience with online dating apps, something which she found incredibly challenging, that Chapter 2 was born.

Chapter 2 has a rigorous sign up process and so is a safe space for widows and widowers to dip their toe back into dating once again.

What was the brief?

Nicky Wake enlisted our help to launch Chapter 2 in the UK by telling her story. A very emotive topic, which required sensitivity and to showcase Chapter 2 as an inclusive and safe platform for a vulnerable group.

Nicky was clear on what success looked like to her - she needed national press noise, but this had to convert into subscriptions. The target was to have 500 sign ups by December 31st, 2022, a target hit two months early on October 30th.

Nicky also wanted to secure one daytime TV interview - Nicky appeared on Channel 4’s Steph’s Packed Lunch on, which saw a 65% increase in website traffic.

Challenges overcome

Sadly, in 2023, there is still some ‘taboo’ around dating after the loss of a spouse. Our messaging had to reach beyond this and speak to the target audience of widows and widowers who were perhaps considering dating again, but did not feel there was a space for them in the dating world.

In addition, Nicky’s story of losing her husband Andy needed to be treated sensitively and with great care, which influenced the media outlets and journalists we focused our outreach.

Our process - what do we do differently to other agencies?

Yes, we get great coverage, but that’s not what makes us different.

Every detail of what we do has a clear strategy and the results speak for themselves. We analyse every last detail to ensure we consistently deliver killer content, build up brand awareness and show exactly how Chapter 2 is a community based dating app that will ease you into the transition of dating.

We combine INTELLIGENCE, IDEAS and INFLUENCE to drive IMPACT.

Our audience first approach connects growing brands with their audiences - driving word of mouth and helping them thrive.

HOW DATS MADE KAMPUS THE PLACE TO BE

“The team at DATS has an unrivalled ability to tell a brand's story across all media platforms - proactively prioritising key messages which without a doubt have resulted in conversion.”

– Helen Aldridge - Director of Marketing Native Residential

OUR KPIS FOR THE FIRST 6 MONTHS:

• 10KFOLLOWERS ON THE KAMPUS INSTAGRAM

• 50K SOCIAL MEDIA IMPRESSIONS

• 400 PROPERTY LEASES FROM SOCIAL MEDIA

OUR RESULTS SO FAR:

• 12.9K FOLLOWERS ON INSTAGRAM

• 280K SOCIAL MEDIA IMPRESSIONS

• 93.2% INCREASE IN REACH

• SOCIAL MEDIA BECAME THE BIGGEST REFERRER

WHAT IS KAMPUS?

Kampus is a unique living experience in Manchester city centre, offering the community sleek and stylish apartments, a beautiful garden neighbourhood and the ability to be immersed into a vibrant, bustling atmosphere. All while being surrounded by a wide selection of independent bars and restaurants.

WHAT WAS THE BRIEF?

Native enlisted our help to manage Kampus' social media pages and support their goal of communicating the step up in lifestyle that Kampus has to offer.

The Kampus team were clear with what success would look like to them. They wanted an engaged audience, that would act as brand advocates online, constantly sharing and commenting. Their feed should reflect the competitive difference Kampus has to offer. It's not just a gorgeous apartment. It's a new way of life, with bars, restaurant's, shops and even fitness classes right on your doorstep.

CHALLENGES OVERCOME

Kampus' engagement across Facebook did not reflect the strength of the Instagram page. We built consistency over the channels and adapted content to ensure it reached its potential on either platform. By doing this, we saw a 57% increase in engagement on Facebook and a 30% increase in those talking about Kampus on the platform.

OUR PROCESS: What we do differently to other agencies

Yes, we make great content, but that’s not what makes us different. Every detail of what we do has a clear strategy and the results speak for themselves. We analyse every last detail to ensure we consistently deliver killer social content, build up their community and show exactly how life at Kampus is incomparable to other build to rent locations.

We combine INTELLIGENCE, IDEAS and INFLUENCE to drive IMPACT.

Our audience first approach connects growing brands with their audiences - driving word of mouth and helping them thrive.

Chapter 2, the UK’s only dedicated dating app for widows and widowers, today announces its expansion into the USA and Australia

Widow Nicky Wake, who channelled her own personal experiences of dating after loss into the creation of Chapter 2 dating app in the UK, confirms launch of dedicated dating sites in Australia and the USA helping more widows and widowers find happiness in their next chapter.

Chapter 2, the UK’s only dedicated dating app for widows and widowers, today announces its expansion into the USA and Australia following the unprecedented success of its UK launch in November 2022. 

Chapter 2 will launch in the USA in June 2023 and in Australia in September 2023, with widows and widowers invited to pre-register on the sites to receive two months premium membership from launch date on www.chapter2dating.com.au or www.chapter2app.com.

Since its launch in the UK in November 2022, Chapter 2 has seen more than 2,000 subscribers, who are actively dating and interacting, join the app. 

Chapter 2 is a phrase extensively used within the widow community and is used to describe friendship, companionship, dating or physical comfort, it means different things to different people.  The app provides a safe space for widows and widowers who are either looking to move on and find happiness once again or simply want to dip their toe back into the world of dating once again.

Chapter 2 founder, Nicky Wake says: “I am delighted to finally announce our expansion into Australia and the USA. I have been blown away by how well received Chapter 2 was by the widow community. It shows me that there really is a need for a safe space like this for widows and widowers to revisit dating once again on their own terms and within a community of like minded people.

“Chapter 2 really is a passion project of mine. I myself tried the various mainstream dating apps out there and found it to be like the wild west so I knew an app like this was needed.

“I am so excited for Chapter 2’s ‘next chapter’ and particularly thrilled to be announcing this news on International Women’s Day. I have a lot of ambitious plans for Chapter 2 and will be announcing further plans later this year.”

Chapter 2 Founder, Nicky Wake’s story

Nicky, who runs an event management company in Manchester, was married to her soulmate Andy with an eleven year old son, a high flying career and a life filled with love, laughter and travels. In 2017 her blissful world imploded when Andy suffered a life-changing brain injury.

Nicky and Andy were early adopters of the online dating scene, having met in 2002 on DatingDirect and bonded over a mutual love of music, art, peace and love. They married in 2004 in an idyllic beach ceremony in Jamaica before their son Finn arrived three years later. 

Nicky and Andy were thriving in the business world too - running an event management company delivered glittering awards shows around the globe. Life was perfect.

In 2017 Andy casually mentioned that he was experiencing some chest pain and after 3 GP visits and an ECG it was discovered that Andy was having a heart attack. He had a stent fitted, made a good recovery and was sent home. That evening he asked Nicky to promise that she would always wear her wedding rings in the event of anything happening.

During the night Andy tragically had another heart attack, the stent had failed. During the attack Andy’s brain was starved of oxygen and he suffered a catastrophic brain injury. 

What followed was three weeks of bedside agony, hoping for a miracle and after multiple resuscitation attempts it became clear that Andy was unable to communicate or walk. Andy eventually moved into a residential care home leaving Nicky to pick up the pieces for their son Finn. She learned how to parent solo. 

In 2020, Covid was making headlines. Andy sadly contracted Covid and died in March. Nicky now had to adopt a new identity, she was now a widow.  After some time Nicky decided to dip her toe back into dating once again, trying many of the ‘traditional’ online dating platforms and by doing so discovered that dating while grieving was incredibly challenging. 

It was because of Nicky’s own experience of using online dating apps that she created Chapter 2, a first in the UK widow dating scene. 

Nicky says “After some time I was conscious of just how sad and lonely I felt; at 50 I was too young to spend the rest of my life alone and although I would never get over losing Andy or stop loving him I needed to try and move forward, as widows we never move on. 

I started taking the first tentative steps into dating, I tried mainstream dating apps Tinder and Bumble before quickly realising that online dating had changed significantly in the past 20 years! It was a learning experience! 

After a few disastrous dates I realised there had to be a better way. I had been blown away by the support of widow charities and widow Facebook groups. The talk at widow meetups very often turns to dating and the challenges of dating again. And so I decided to launch Chapter 2.  

Down at the Social To Deliver Campaign wi-Q solutions

PR and social media agency Down At The Social has been awarded the contract to deliver PR and marketing campaigns for wi-Q Technologies and its CEO, Patience Tucker.

The business, which is funded by Manchester-based venture capital investor Praetura Ventures, has headquarters in Manchester, and offices in London and the Middle East and is pursuing further growth worldwide.

The team is briefed to channel its digital PR, copywriting and brand marketing skills to support the wi-Q digital solution. The campaign will be further supported by a business and tech press office to drive brand awareness in the UK and the Middle East, whilst also providing copywriting and brand identity services to assist wi-Q in delivering a more cohesive global brand identity message. 

The wi-Q team supports a broad range of customers across 55 countries, including some of the world’s largest hotel chains, fast casual dining and food delivery brands.

Daisy said; “At DATS we work hard to find clients that have true synergy with our values and wi-Q is one that really resonates.  Patience is a formidable CEO and an inspirational female leader and as a team of strong women ourselves, we are so excited to both work alongside her and shout about her successes in growing this international brand.

“We have been lucky enough to work with Ruth Knowles, wi-Q’s Head of Marketing, before and know that we can deliver the extension to her team that is vital in the wi-Q growth story right now.”

Patience Tucker, CEO of wi-Q said; “Our wi-Q story is moving fast right now and PR and marketing are going to be integral in keeping the rest of the world up with what we’re achieving.  From first meeting Daisy and Orla from Down at the Social, I was confident that they had the skills and understanding to be trusted with our story.  Not only are they deeply embedded in the hospitality industry but have a proven track record of working with tech businesses both at launch and as they grow.”

Down at the Social recently launched Chapter 2, the UK’s only dedicated dating app for widows and widowers created by businesswoman and widow Nicky Wake, who channelled her own personal experiences of dating after loss into the creation of the Chapter 2 dating app in the UK. 

Yesterday the Manchester based consultancy was delighted to announce Chapter Two’s expansion into the USA and Australia following the unprecedented success of its UK launch in November 2022. 

Chapter 2 will launch in the USA in June 2023 and in Australia in September 2023.  Since its launch in the UK in November 2022, Chapter 2 has seen more than 2,000 subscribers, who are actively dating and interacting, join the app. 

Daisy continued; “Launching Chapter 2 Dating has been a massive success and something we are all extremely proud of. My team has delivered over 13 pieces of national coverage driving meaningful traffic and generating sign ups that have contributed to making the brand new business successful here in the UK and enabling an international expansion just months after launch. Nicky has a brilliant business and we are so pleased to see how successful it is.”

Down at the Social is also further expanding its PR and Social Media teams with both disciplines delivering standalone and integrated campaigns.

Bronia Moszynska has joined the DATS social and content team as social media manager from her role as marketing manager at Pursuit Properties,  following the completion of a Masters in International Fashion Marketing. 

Anna Gilllespie has joined DATS as PR manager, from her role as PR and Communications Manager at LWC Drinks, where she oversaw the trade and consumer PR and media strategy for the wholesaler, its beer brand and 45 pubs across the UK. 

Down at the Social has experience working with national brands including Chapter 2 Dating, MEDAHUMAN, UKBG, KBK, Shoryu Ramen, Skinny Lager/ Skinny IPA, Zymurgorium, HRH Group, Native, OrderYOYO, Chopstix Noodle Bars, Seetec, Manchester Pride, LEGOLAND Discovery Centre and SEA LIFE.  www.downatthesocial.co.uk   

Down at the Social & Distinctly Aware Toast Alcohol & Functional Drinks Credentials

PR and social media agency Down At The Social has partnered with drinks’ brand marketing specialists Distinctly Aware to work with pioneering functional drink brand MEDAHUMAN and iconic Italian liqueur Amaro Montenegro to bring back the annual competition - The Vero Bartender.

The partner agencies have also signed a deal to sponsor and promote Battle Of The Bottle, a new international bartending competition headed up by award winning mixologist Tom Dyer and Erik Folkart, The Avenue Live co-founder.

The competition, which will be 100% online, is supported by the two of the biggest bartender associations in the world, the World Flair Association and the International Bartenders Association.  Judging the competition will be a respected panel of judges in the bartending industry but the viewing public will also play a part in choosing the winning bartender who has the chance to win a share of up to $10,ooo dollars in tips.  

Leanne, MD of Distinctly Aware, is a board member of the UKBG and has brought Down at the Social on board to support the guild’s relaunch as it works to reset the organisation which launched in 1934.  The UKBG is made up of a team of experienced trade professionals, acting as the governing and guiding body of the hospitality trade in the UK.  

The agencies, which have worked together previously on campaigns for brands such as gin distiller Zymurgorium, have combined their skills to create an integrated brand, sales, marketing, PR and social media campaign for MEDAHUMAN as it announces its first national multiple listing.

With the functional wellness combined global market estimated to be worth $28.72 billion by 2030, MEDAHUMAN is leading the way in the UK with its range of drinks containing more functional elements than any other brand on the market and will appear on shelves in more than 200 Morrisons shops across the country from Monday, June 20th, 2022.

Down at the Social’s campaign is focussed on consumer and trade activity to grow the reach and understanding of the CBD drink range and communicate its top quality ingredients and functions to consumers and buyers.  The campaign is designed to shout about the listing, target new ones and ensure that customers are going in store to try the product.

Distinctly Aware heads up the marketing strategy for the brand.  It has secured significant traction in the on and off trade, whereby Distinctly Aware is seeking to ensure continual growth through enhanced consumer and trade marketing programmes that enhance brand awareness, visibility and sales.

Amaro Montenegro - Italy’s number one premium amaro -  brought back  The Vero Bartender, its annual cocktail competition that invites bartenders from around the world to showcase their talent in synergy with the brand.  After a two-year hiatus due to the global pandemic, the concept celebrated the joy of coming together - something the bartending community sorely missed.

Distinctly Aware led the campaign to engage with bartenders across the UK via a number of masterclasses with key trade influencers to inspire entrants to the competition as well as being given key insights to the brand.  The campaign culminated in a national final in September in London.

Down at the Social took the reins with trade media relations, tapping into its network of regional influencers and national media contacts to drive coverage and content to encourage as many contestants in the competition as possible.  The agency also supported with social media content creation and paid advertising strategy to reach as many bartenders as possible.

Daisy Whitehouse, MD at Down at the Social, said; “As a business we look for clients with engaging activations to promote and brilliant stories to tell. 

“MEDAHUMAN is at a hugely exciting time in its evolution as it begins to secure a series of big listeings that will cement its position in the mainstream, redefining the functional drinks space.  Consumers are slowly starting to understand the huge benefits of CBD and how it can work with other ingredients to improve wellbeing and MEDAHUMAN is well positioned to be the daily solution that we are all searching for.  

“Vero Bartender is an institution and it is an honour to support its return as part of an international team.  The final promises to be a special moment as many of the industry that we love come together again to share their love of truly great drinks.

“We are so pleased to work with Leanne and her brilliant team at Distinctly Aware to bring these very different campaigns to life.  Leanne’s understanding of brand, hospitality and the overall drinks industry is second to none and she is an asset to both her campaigns and ours.”

Leanne Ware, MD of Distinctly Aware, said; “The aim of Distinctly Aware is to be able to provide an holistic solution to drink and hospitality brands, regardless of where they are in their journey, scale and budgets.  Key to our success is working with partners that wholly understand the drinks industry. 

“Down at the Social is fully immersed in this sector, which has enabled us to amplify campaigns in exactly the way we envisage for the brands. We have been able to work beautifully in tandem with Daisy and the team and look forward to more projects together.”  

Down at the Social has experience working with national brands including KBK, Shoryu Ramen, Skinny Lager/ Skinny IPA, Zymurgorium, HRH Group, Native, OrderYOYO, Chopstix Noodle Bars, Seetec, Manchester Pride and Kays Traffic Management.  

Distinctly Aware draws on experience of working with household brands such as Whitley Neill, Bacardi, Jack Daniels and Beluga through to guiding smaller, independent  brands such as Ocean Beer,  BeauFort Spirit, Beebolin Mixers and The House of Rum.

DATS Celebrates Yorkshire Day by Looking Back on a Fruitful Year with HRH Hotel Group

On August 1st, we celebrated Yorkshire Day. Some lovers of the area might argue it should be celebrated 365 days of the year, such is the beauty of the region.

The celebration on August 1st alludes to the regimental anniversary of the Battle of Minden and the wearing of roses in the headdress on that day. The date is also the anniversary of the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, for which a Yorkshire MP, William Wilberforce, campaigned.

So we thought it the perfect time to highlight our very own Yorkshire-based client, the HRH Hotel Group.

HRH Hotel Group is a collection of some of North Yorkshire’s best loved hotels, restaurants and pubs offering unique service and character. Their properties are the perfect place to rest your head and indulge in the finest food after a day exploring the historical attractions that Yorkshire has to offer.

The group comprises three classic hotels, three charming and characterful inns and one quintessentially British pub.

When Down at the Social came on board, we quickly identified that we were not dealing with an ordinary hotel and restaurant group, but rather a group of unique and individual properties, run by a team with hospitality at their very core.

Identifying the personalities of each property requires us to tailor the PR offering to every one, treating them all as unique brands. The strategy and approach at The Yorkshire hotel - a classic, British hotel - is very different from The Fat Badger - a charming, cosy pub where pints and pies are king. 

One of our first tasks when we started working with HRH Group in May 2021 was creating awareness around the brand and making noise to launch their newest project; a full scale renovation of their boutique York hotel, Clementine’s.

Having been tasked with creating a PR campaign around the launch we had to first identify its USP; its charm and quirkiness - two things it has in abundance. 

Some research led us to a rather famous Yorkshire man, a chemist by the name of Joseph Terry who is responsible for the invention of one of the UK’s most loved confectionery items, a staple of the Christmas stocking - the Terry’s Chocolate Orange. 

We worked with Clementine’s to create a dedicated Chocolate Orange hotel suite, giving chocolate orange lovers the chance to indulge in a chocolate paradise with the room, including chocolate orange-themed gifts upon arrival as well as a series of themed chocolate cocktails created by Clementine’s in-house mixologist, with Chocolate Orange Daiquiris stealing the show in the bar.  

The campaign was met with rapturous applause from the press and generated national and regional coverage for the hotel, driving awareness, SEO and direct bookings. 

Through our everyday work with HRH Group, we secure media review visits - most recently the Evening Standard - and are always brainstorming new and exciting campaigns.

We are currently working on a Christmas campaign for their Harrogate properties, as well as pursuing opportunities to keep the York properties front of mind for visitors to the north. 

We look forward to continuing to work with HRH Group in 2023 and beyond and have some exciting plans and campaigns ahead.

Are you looking for PR support for your hotel or hospitality brand?

Get in touch below.

Building The Future Of The Aviation Industry

One of the hardest hit industries during the Covid-19 pandemic has been aviation. With the help of Seetec Outsource, apprentices are playing an important role in helping the industry to take-off again.

The UK inbound tourism industry which is worth 28.4billion, has experienced tough restrictions during the pandemic, with ever changing requirements for testing to fly along with the unpopular ‘traffic light’ system, all which has only recently been removed. Domestic travel was down by 75% in 2020, in comparison to 2019.

As a result of an uncertain two years for the industry, furlough or redundancy has been common amongst companies in aviation. Therefore, Seetec Outsource was looking to aviation apprentices to ‘Build The Future’ of the aviation industry.

We worked with Seetec to highlight the fantastic work that Seetec Outsource does to provide opportunities to apprentices to pave the way towards a brighter future along with providing struggling industries with the talent needed to get back on its feet.

Through a targeted and informed media relations campaign and working with key stakeholders including SaxonAir and 2Excel, we were able to supply the media with a range of current aviation apprentices and experts in the industry for comment, which added informed value to the campaign.

Being able to communicate real life stories about aviation apprentices, we were able to showcase the real change they are making to the industry and how essential they are. The campaign saw 16 pieces of coverage with an accumulated reach of 1,636,127, appearing across key trade and regional publications, including a national piece in The Metro print.

Six Months of Social Media with Kampus

Kampus is a vibrant new neighbourhood in Manchester’s city centre, a collection of old and new buildings offers a melting pot of architectural styles and builds on a rich cultural heritage, making use of historic buildings that lay derelict for years, right next to the famous Canal Street in Manchester’s Gay Village and just minutes from Piccadilly Station.

We started working with Kampus in June 2021, from here we have helped them build a loyal, engaged and inclusive community online to reflect their growing community of residents. In under six months with Kampus, we have almost doubled their Instagram following which is now 7,200+ people strong.

Through the creation and implementation of expert social media strategy and consistent account management, Kampus now reaches over 4,000 individual accounts each week. We have grown reach significantly on Facebook and Twitter despite the challenge of those channels being less visual-centric than Instagram. What’s more, we’re proud to say we have built a healthy and sustained engagement rate of 2-5%, which is way above the average for a brand on Instagram.

The Kampus social channels are also the number one marketing tool for driving viewings and we are proud to contribute exceptional growth not just to the social media, but also having an impact on Kampus as a business. 

The Kampus gardens and Bungalow are the central feature of the community and are permanently open to the public, with the Bungalow operating as a village hall for pop-up events and community groups. The neighbourhood is alive with events and will be home to independent bars, restaurants, cafés and retail from brands including General Store, Nell’s and Bread Flower, all of whom we have helped drive attention and interest to through our well-executed campaign launches.  

When Kampus initially came to us, they needed help in growing, engaging and mobilising their social media followers, and that’s exactly what we have accomplished.

As a relatively new community in the city centre of Manchester, our main challenge was to ensure that Kampus’ social channels highlighted all of their unique selling points. This included:

• Being “Manchester’s Garden Neighbourhood”: At the heart of Kampus is a public garden designed by Exterior Architecture.

• The Bungalow: Kampus has its own village hall-on-stilts in which they host everything from pop-up restaurants to artisan workshops, offering unique lifestyle opportunities to residents. 

• A long list of inclusive amenities: pets, gym, yoga, cinema, work lounge, broadband included, you name it - Kampus had it. 

• The ability to get started right away: Kampus is unique in that it does not require a fee or a deposit to start living there.

Once we narrowed down Kampus’ main selling points, we then made sure we ran a strong scheduling strategy that would allow for each pillar to be highlighted - the gardens, the events launches, the amenities, etc - in its own way.

Through strong and strict copywriting we nailed the tone to ensure we remained consistent and true to their branding, and utilised call to actions to drive people towards booking a viewing.

Through our everyday account management, we help Kampus stay on top of their comms (whether that be someone who is enquiring about an event or someone who is looking to make a booking of an apartment) and have also created a healthy and supportive community on their channels.

We look forward to continuing our work with Kampus into 2022, with lots of exciting campaigns and events coming up on their schedule.

You can see our work in full by checking out Kampus’ social media channels here:

Instagram: @kampusmcr 

Twitter: @kampusmcr

Salford Shopping Centre Provides 4,000 Essential Food Items to Families Struggling At Christmas

Salford Shopping Centre is giving back to local families in need this Christmas by donating over 4,000 essential food items to Salford Foodbank.

Looking to make a real difference to those in need, the centre has provided food from the supermarkets based in the centre, including Iceland, Aldi and Home Bargains. 

Salford Foodbank is supported by The Trussell Trust, working to combat poverty and hunger across the UK. With Salford Shopping Centre’s help, the team provided shopping for multiple three day food parcels containing nutritionally balanced items such as soup, pasta, fruit and vegetable to support local people in crisis. 

Salford Shopping Centre Manager, Nick Pitt, said: “These are particularly hard times for many people, particularly in our community, and this year we felt compelled to do something that would directly benefit the lives of people in Salford. By working with the Supermarkets here at the shopping centre we have been able to secure thousands of food items and transport them from our shelves to the Salford Food Bank. We hope our donation will make life a little easier for those who have to use the  Salford Food Bank this festive season, secure in the knowledge that it will be well stocked and with our best wishes.

Emma Rapley, Salford Foodbank’s Warehouse Coordinator, expressed her gratitude: “We'd like to say a huge thank you to the team at Salford Shopping Centre for arranging this generous donation of food to Salford Foodbank. The amount donated was over a week's worth of food supply for us. We are currently distributing 130 food parcels each week to individuals and families across Salford facing crisis and food poverty. Our parcels include 3 days worth of nutritionally balanced food and drink, plus a Chrismtas goodie bag in the lead up to the big day. We know this means so much to those people to our foodbank centres at this time of year.”

Introducing The Chocolate Orange Room at Clementine’s

Clementine’s, is a newly renovated boutique hotel situated in the heart of York. We were tasked with creating a full-scale PR campaign to raise awareness of the hotel, making sure to highlight its quirkiness. 

Blending classic art with modern-day mischief, Clementine’s sees cheeky interior touches, where Parisian chic meets Yorkshire heritage. So, what did we do to stand out in the hotel market?

Looking to highlight a distinct part of York’s history, one particular individual who lived there, a chemist called Joseph Terry invented one of the most famous and beloved confectionery items, Terry’s Chocolate Orange. 

Looking to pay homage to the iconic Chocolate Orange, we worked with Clementine’s to create a dedicated Chocolate Orange hotel suite!

The aptly named Chocolate Orange Room gives chocolate orange lovers the chance to indulge in a chocolate paradise with the room, including chocolate orange-themed gifts upon arrival.

A series of themed chocolate cocktails were also created by Clementine’s in-house mixologist, with Chocolate Orange Daiquiris and After Eight Mojitos available via room service, or to be sipped in the hotel bar, providing guests with the full chocolate experience. 

It all started with a very fun and slightly cheeky photoshoot at Clementine’s. Our wonderful model looked to recreate a scene from the cult-classic American Beauty, covered in orange rose petals. 

The campaign was met with rapturous applause from the press with one journalist describing it as ‘Genius PR’. 

We generated heaps of national and regional coverage for the hotel, driving awareness, SEO and direct bookings. Also ensuring that all coverage had direct links back to Clementine's website, ensuring a steady stream of referral traffic. 

One of our values at Down At The Social is not just doing PR for PR sake. This is very much true with this particular campaign. Whilst we wanted to do something fun, we wanted to do something that would see our client benefit, with direct links back to the Clementine’s website. Some great exposure and a flurry of bookings! So thanks Terry, we owe you! 

Diablesse Celebrates International Women's Day

Creative PR Campaigns

Led by a team of women, Diablesse Rum, is an independent female-owned rum brand based in Manchester, disrupting the landscape of a predominantly male rum industry.

Owner & Managing Director, Cleo Farman, has an ethos to champion a more female-inclusive approach to rum, with Diablesse Rum the result of Farman’s year-long exploration of rums, personally creating and testing different blends and flavours.

For International Women's Day 2021, with the country in lockdown and IWD events forced online, we worked with Diablesse Rum and Manchester-based illustrator and graphic designer, Alexandra Francis, to create two limited edition prints of two inspirational women, past and present.

Featuring Kamala Harris and Emmeline Pankhurst, the prints were designed in the IWD colours of purple, green and white, seeing all proceeds going to The Pankhurst Trust.

Alongside the prints, female mixologist Sammie Cox has designed three International Women’s Day Diablesse cocktails, with each one representing the IWD colours and meanings. Plus, in collaboration with Femme Forward, male & female bartenders from around the UK were invited to post their own Diablesse white, purple and green cocktails on social on the day to honour the occasion. The perfect tipples to toast International Women’s Day and powerful females doing great things.

The campaign resulted in blanket regional coverage for Manchester, alongside key product placement coverage in nationals.

The Diva Of Gin Liqueurs...

Gin Social Media Launch.

When it comes to divas, nobody does it better than the GC!

When reality TV star extraordinaire Gemma Collins puts her name to a product the world goes wild.

At Zymurgorium there is a team of wizards that create never-seen before gins and liqueurs in their sleep and they had a brilliant time creating Gemma’s first ever gin liqueur, the FlaGINgo Gemma Collins.

With a fabulous product to play with, how did we maximise this on social and get the whole world wanting to get their hands on it? We needed to drive a social media campaign that packed a punch and commanded the attention of anyone who saw it.

Launched officially onto shelves on Monday 23rd November, we looked to start a teaser campaign of social, working in flamingo feathers and glitter to captivate our audiences attention. The teaser campaign asked followers to guess who was behind the campaign and led them into a 7 day countdown to launch day.

As the product went live on the website at 9am, we coincided our announcement with Gemma Collins also putting the announcement live on her channels, creating maximum traffic.

The social campaign created a staggering 64.000 social engagements from the Zymurgorium social channels and propelled the product to new heights.

Launching Manchester Pride Festival 2021

Event / Festival Promotion

Last week we were so happy to announce the plans we have been working hard on behind the scenes to delivery an in person Manchester Pride Festival in 2021.

Taking this event online in 2020 was hugely rewarding and enabled the Manchester Pride team to build new and extremely effective ways to engage with LGBTQ+ people.

This meant that we were able to continue the vital work we do in raising the profile of the charity and working with media and influencers to keep the conversation about equality and inclusion moving forwards.

We announced that the festival was happening in February to give everyone time to digest the plan and then last Thursday at 9am tickets went on sale.

The weekend rainbow passes to Manchester Pride Live sold out in less than an hour and day tickets and Gay Village Party tickets are still selling fast.

We generated 17 national and 14 regional pieces reaching 146,499,401 people in just 10 days.

National Apprenticeship Week with Seetec Outsource

Thought Leadership & Media Relations

National Apprenticeship Week 2021 took place 8th - 14th February 2021. This annual week-long celebration of apprenticeships aims to bring the whole apprenticeship community together to celebrate the impact of apprenticeships on individuals, employers and the economy.

To increase awareness of Seetec Outsource as a leading apprenticeship provider, we worked alongside Breedon, a construction materials group which employs 40 apprentices currently with Seetec, to tap into the massive noise of NAW with an engaging media relations campaign. 

The campaign focussed on Breedon’s apprentices being important during the pandemic to keep the country moving and how Seetec managed to adapt quickly to online learning, with 87% of those surveyed by Seetec being able to carry on learning during lockdown. 

By doing this, we highlighted opportunities available to apprentices in the logistics and freight industry, why people should consider the industry as a career path and looked at why apprentices are available to those of all ages. 

The campaign included three Breedon apprentices along with key spokespeople at Seetec, this provided perspective on the process of starting an apprenticeship and what an apprenticeship entails. 

With apprenticeship starts in England being 46% lower between March 23 and 31 July than the same period a year earlier, according to figures published by the Department for Education, the campaign also encouraged other businesses like Breedon, to consider taking on apprentices. 

The range of stories, case studies and stats allowed us to start multiple conversations with journalists, engaging with a wide range of media and publications. 

This resulted in the campaign reaching 2,300,949 eyeballs and 16 pieces of coverage.

Kays Traffic Management

Social Media & Community Engagement.

KAYS is a leading service provider in road management, based in Blackburn, Lancashire.

We were tasked with delivering both PR and social media, to elevate their profile.

The KAYS Facebook page has since received a total page reach of 94,701 - an increase year on year of 56,000%.

Content strategy has included a mix of brand creative, key date messages and PR stories, such as the Poppy Appeal.

The Poppy Appeal saw KAYS paint giant poppies on roads around the North West to commemorate Remembrance Day 2020, resulting in highly engaged social content with a reach of over 91k.

The Jordan Hotel

News-jacking I’m A Celebrity.

Did you watch Jordan on I'm A Celeb?

We loved him, and so did Michael and the team at The Lawrence Hotel, so we renamed the hotel to support Jordan on the show.

With a logo redesign, a press release and a new URL, we turned this idea around in 48 hours and got it out to press, generating coverage with The Metro, The Mirror, Pendle Today, Lancs Live, Lancashire Telegraph and the Burnley Express.

News jacking is a brilliant and often quite low budget tactic to generate mass headlines and awareness for a brand.

Cocktail Masterclass From A Flamingo Farm

Virtual Consumer Engagement.

Making cocktails with real life flamingos might not seem like the dream combination but it is when you are Zymurgorium - the makers of FlaGINgo!

The brand has seen online sales of its FlaGINgo pink gin sky rocket in lockdown so they tasked us with engaging with these new consumers to drive further sales.

We knew that consumers we desperate for new and engaging things things to do and that booze was factoring highly in lockdown life. So the only natural thing to do was host a cocktail masterclass from a flamingo farm…

To promote the masterclass we first help a ‘test’ event with a collection of influencers that we knew were fans of the brand. The content they created was brilliant for reaching existing and potential Zym customers.

We engaged with xxx influencers with content that reached xx eyeballs.

Next up came the consumer event which saw 50 gin fans making cocktails with our in-house bartender and Manchester tv, radio and zoom royalty Hattie Pearson.

Zym fans loved it and we saw a further uplift in sales as a result.

Coverage generated for the event included xxx, reaching another xxx eyeballs.

At Home - Product Placement

At Home Is The New Eating Out

At Home boxes are everywhere right now - people miss restaurants and this is the next best thing.

So much so that a whole new category has been spawned!

In the last 8 months we have successfully handled launches for MasterChef champion Simon Wood and Wood At Home, Shoryu Ramen, KBK, Rudy’s At Home, Six By Nico and the recently launched Home X platform from the same team.

We have generated coverage in titles from the Mail Online and Hello to Style, GQ and Esquire.

Clients have reported sales of at least £1k from each piece of coverage generated and even Jay Rayner has written about some of them!