Our Work

Pub-licist

Hungry Horse

161 press hits

2 Awards

THE CHALLENGE

To put the pub back into Hungry Horse.

At the time, like-for-like sales across the country’s casual dining brands were falling by 0.3%, while pubs and bars were seeing growth of 0.6%.

Hungry Horse brand chiefs were subsequently working hard to make Hungry Horse pubs community destinations, and asked WPR to devise a campaign that would communicate the benefits.

THE IDEA

Our pre-planning research identified a report that showed 63% of Brits feel pubs are no longer the heart of the community and should do more to organise events.

There was clearly a need to focus the campaign on an ‘always something going on’ message.

We took the strategy into a brainstorm and very quickly ‘Pub-licist’ was born – the world’s best job where someone would be paid to drink beer, watch sport, play darts, pool or snooker, participate in quizzes, enjoy live music, taste-test pub grub and more.

THE RESULTS

  • The client wanted to see 50-60 regional press hits for the campaign. We hit that target in 24 hours, doubled it in 48 and tripled it in 72
  • All told, we delivered 161 press hits, surpassing the KPIs by 194%
  • 14 national titles also picked up on the story – including the viral sharing juggernaut that is LADbible, Metro (twice), MSN, The Mirror, The Independent and RadioX
  • 80% of titles shared the story on their social media channels, resulting in more than 17,000 organic engagements
  • 92% of online articles included a backlink (DA+30 sites)
  • 100% of articles carried the local, community pub messaging

17korganic engagements

Awards

PRCA Dare Low Budget Campaign of the Year

CIPR Midlands PRide Gold Consumer Relations Campaign