The challenge
To generate maximum online and offline publicity for vegan, natural, and allergen-free chocolate producer Enjoy! – which was launching an exciting rebrand alongside a plethora of new products.
The ROUS+
Treatment…
A chance encounter between our Head of PR, a box of Enjoy! chocolates and company founder Chris Crutchley led to us managing PR and social media for this delicious natural chocolate company. Lovingly handcrafted in Andover, Enjoy! is a unique brand of chocolate which is organic and free from all major allergens, while also being vegan friendly.
The Re-Launch
Enjoy! was due to undergo a rebrand, launching with a new look and feel, alongside a delicious new product range – but it wasn’t quite sure how to use the new brand to gain maximum impact with the consumer and trade press. And that’s where we came in.
After a visit to the Enjoy! chocolate factory, which involved sampling copious amounts of products (all in the name of research, honest!) we set to work on a PR and social media plan to get Enjoy! the recognition it deserved.
Heavily saturated
The chocolate and confectionery market is heavily saturated, with some huge manufacturers and new products appearing – and disappearing – with alarming regularity. We knew that to make Enjoy! really stand out from the crowd, we had to find something different that would make the media and consumers sit up and take notice.
As former journalists, we know that telling a great story is the backbone of most successful campaigns, and that’s exactly what we did.
Consumer PR – the human interest story
Enjoy! was initially created by Chris, along with wife Steph, after years of not being able to enjoy chocolate due to his severe intolerances. We knew that his human interest angle would grab the attention of journalists – especially if they were also able to sample the great products at the same time too. We set about making identifying and making contact with a hero list of journalists, warning them that we were sending them a box of goodies, alongside a truly great story.
At the same time, with the ROUS+ team not short of a former journo or two, it’s fair to say that we’re always ready to delve a little deeper to find any additional angles to the story, which is exactly what we did for Enjoy!.
We knew that had a great angle for the consumer press with Chris and Steph’s story, but that we would need something more to get the trade media to bite.
Trade PR, Food PR
After interviewing all major Enjoy! team members, we found exactly what we were looking for in its Head of Marketing and in several investors, who were former executives at chocolate giants, Thorntons; and in its development chef, who had Michelin-star experience. This not only gave us two more great stories, but gave the Enjoy! brand a gravitas and kudos that money can’t buy.
Social media
While media interviews were important, we knew how vital it was to create a social media buzz for the rebrand and launch of the new product range.
We identified and approached a number of key influencers, including chocoholics, vegans and foodies, to ensure the Enjoy! story was spread far and wide.
The Results
- The Enjoy! brand reached more than 15 million people,
- National television appearances on Sky News, ITV and radio interviews with BBC,
- Stories carried in national titles including Daily Mail, This is Money and Metro
- Regional press coverage in Andover Advertiser and North Hampshire Living
- Not forgetting more specialist food magazines and trade publications like The Grocer, Food Manufacture, Vegan Food and Living, Vegan Life to name a few.
- More than 325,000 potential customers encountered the brand across social media thanks to the relationships we built up with social media influencers like Vegan Loving Life, PlantBasedHMJ, The Bearded Vegan and more.
- Always priding ourselves on going above and beyond for our clients, we were also heavily involved in establishing a commercial partnership with speciality online supermarket, The Vegan Kind, which now stocks Enjoy! Products.
