Della Vite, a premium prosecco brand, approached me to give the brand a boost in the run up to Xmas and New Year.We only had 8 weeks to get things back up to speed. It was a very premium product - the most expensive in its category - so only certain media are interested in this price point.We also had no access to the celebrity founders, so had to utilise existing assets from the original launch.
Task:
They’d been on shelves for 3 years and didn’t have any NPD, so I had to get stuck in and generate new content, start outreach again and make things feel fresh.
Highlights:
We were invited to be the main wine at a Soho House Event hosted by an Evening Standard drinks journalist as a ‘best-in-class’ product.
A major push on the Sainsbury’s listing meant we had a wealth of targeted coverage to present to buyers at our quarterly review with the supermarket, which has helped relations going forward.
Messaging has focused around this being the best prosecco on the shelves at the moment - even non-prosecco fans have been won over.
There has been a degree of cynicism around celebrity brands and we’re started to be recognised outside of this sphere - we’re now a major playor in this category and one to watch.
In just 8 weeks coverage secured with the Independent, Evening Standard, The Times, The Telegraph - after months of the brand feeling pretty dormant.
A full page secured in S Magazine on New Year’s Eve - achieving an advertising value of £18.5k.
78 pieces of coverage | 3 Billion pieces of coverage | 74 domain authority | 11.5k
I handled the consumer press office for Fever-Tree. Over the course of 2023, 200 pieces of consumer PR was achieved.
The Christmas Campaign in 2022 was the most successful yet with 46 pieces of consumer coverage for the Advent Calendar, Christmas Crackers and Easy Mixing Cocktail Book.
We hosted a media event at HQ which generated a piece with
BBC Sounds for Fever-Tree CEO, Tim Warrillow
Spanish Clementine NPD launch was the most successful NPD launch ever with 29 pieces of coverage including: Spirits Business, Sunday Mirror, Sunday Express, The Sun, Club Oenologique, Good Housekeeping, Beverage Daily. Total reach was over 47million.
Older products in the portfolio had been largely ignored so I gave them a bit of love too - for example the Cucumber Tonic was pitched as the perfect tonic for Spring, and new content I wrote garnered 21 pieces of coverage throughout the course of the year.
TV slots were imperative to get all eyes on the brand in such a competitive space. Slots appeared on Saturday Kitchen, Alan Titchmarsh Love Your Weekend, This Morning, Sunday Brunch.
Three Seasons Gin launch for Cambridge Distillery
Master Distiller William Lowe MW was the only distiller to have an MW, the synergy between wine tasting and gin making needed to be explored, and then dialled up. I started off by interviewing him in depth and pulling out some great soundbites such as ‘James Bond didn’t know what he was talking about when it came to martinis’…(or something along those lines!) I created some ‘fast facts’ about Will and started to pitch. I discovered that what Will was doing was completely challenging the notion of what a ‘flavoured gin’ is, (Cambridge is not flavoured, it is a London Dry and Will has mastered the art of distilling botanicals and other ingredients that no one else can).
By extrapolating what made Will, and the Gin, entirely different to what was out there on the market, I was able to pitch the gin in a different way, leading to different conversations that would have not have happened before. For example - I spend some time pitching exclusively to wine journalists who had not previously had his news: by pulling out all of his wine knowledge and how his MW made him a better distiller. It was not a case of look at this bottle, isn’t it nice, it was really honing down on USPs in this market, (although a beautiful bottle shot does of course help - an added bonus!). It was a challenge, due to its price point and lack of stockists outside of the Cambridge website, so this was all about quality pieces rather than a ‘far-and-wide’ kind of sell in.
By focusing on the ‘new’ element (Three Seasons) there was a halo effect on drawing attention to the Distillery itself, and consequently the other products too.
Coverage ran in:
Drinks Retailing News, Spirits Business, Speciality Food, Harper’s Wine & Spirit, Gin Magazine, Luxury Editor, The Independent, No 1. in GQ’s Best Gins for a Gin & Tonic, The Week, Esquire, The English Wine Diaries - Podcast with Will, The Drinking Hour - Podcast with Will, Country Living, Olive , Netjets, Square Mile - interview with Will, ES Magazine - interview with Will , The Times - interview with Will, The Daily Telegraph - interview with Will
🍻🍻Bringing Shandy Back: announcing a Sainsbury’s listing for Shandy Shack’s Elderflower Top 🍻🍻
PRing a product that isn’t new is always a challenge, especially on a start-up budget. Without celebrity endorsement, stunts or influencer engagement the focus is on content, and myself and the team waited for exactly the right moment to instigate a trends piece with The Guardian. Using an upcoming Sainsbury’s launch in 51 stores as a call-to-action for consumers, Shandy Shack were in the perfect place to demonstrate the power of (happy) nostalgia. Coupled with a thirst for commentary around the moderation/nolo movement, this first piece of news kickstarted a snowball effect of PR across national newspapers, radio and broadcast which catapulted the brand into the mainstream in the run up to Summer.
What started as what could have potentially been a few pieces of product placement ended up being a solid campaign based around nolo, entrepreneurialism, pivoting business during the pandemic, fun, nostalgia and more. The Shandy Shack Founders biked beers across London for Lorraine to discuss on air, (“is Shandy the new champagne?’) stubbies to Jilly Goolden to sample, (“Why Shandy’s Top of the Hops!”) provided commentary in highly regarded Trade titles such as The Grocer, Drinks Business and Speciality Food, went on BBC Radio 4 to talk about the good old days of shandy and received a glowing review on ITV’s This Morning’s “Top Tipples for Summer”, (Phil announced, ‘you’d want a fridge full of those!’) which sent the website sales rocketing. Blanket coverage was achieved in both print and online across all of the nationals.
It was a pleasure to work with this incredibly hard-working trio of founders, Ed, Fred and Tom, (2 of whom are still practicing NHS Doctors!) and drinks industry expert Rachael Vaughan-Jones to propel Shandy Shack forward. Good luck guys with all the amazing things you have coming up and it was a pleasure to work with you. Until we shack up again!
Stats: over 50 pieces of press achieved, over 1 billion opportunities to see across titles such as This Morning, Daily Mail, Mailonline, Daily Mirror, Fabulous Magazine, The Grocer, The Guardian, Guardian.com, The Week, Morning Advertiser, MSN, The Telegraph, Daily Star, Shortlist, Grazia Daily and more.
Ballantine’s Artist Series
My work on a Creative Collaboration with Graphic Artist Leif Podhajsky and Ballantine’s whisky won Best Gift Box Set at the Drinks International Travel Retail Awards 2015. 1.4 million packs sold into 32 markets, representing a sales uplift of 2.5% YoY.
Martell 300th Anniversary
Hosting an event for 300 people at the Palace of Versailles for Global Media. Over 400 pieces of coverage achieved in Luxury Press. Diane Kruger announced as the face of the anniversary. Photoshoot by Mary McCartney at Versailles. Food by Paul Pairet. Anniversary Bottle by Bernar Venet.
