Kate Sullivan, communications executive of UBREW, explains why the business should win the marketing and PR category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition.
UBREW is London’s first radically open brewery. People can join as a member, turn up to our brewery and brew their very own beer. We were creative with our marketing and PR strategy, which carried us through a successful crowdfund, raising £120,000 through both rewards and equity-based investment, and into an exciting launch and huge business growth.
Our strategy included integrating communications channels, online marketing, and social media. Where our creativity was most successful was in targeting a priority list of publications and inviting them to personalised brewing sessions.
These brewing sessions were targeted at Time Out, The Metro, Londonist and City A.M. We provided these publications with the opportunity to brew with us and get their very own branded bottle labels for their beer. This strategy was hugely successful and we gained full page articles in both The Metro and Time Out as a result.
The impact our strategy had on business growth is obvious. We had 506 unique web visitors after our publicity drive (in mid-February) and we were featured on BBC London News, which led to 17,741 views and more than 600 engagements.
We won 100 members within six weeks of opening. In our first six months, we made £3,000 through our brewing courses. We’ve also earned over £12,000 through memberships. Our tactics were innovative, creative and an integral reason for our success today.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
