Prohibition

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the marketing manager for Feather Down Farms in the UK. We provide family-friendly glamping opportunities at working farms across the UK and Europe.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Prohibition?

We were looking for a PR agency to work with to expand our brand awareness in the UK.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Prohibition has been working with us to increase our brand awareness and become a spokesperson in the media for glamping and family holidays. The team has proposed an overarching strategy for brand awareness.

We've also worked specifically on a destination detox campaign over the last four months. It has involved obtaining research from an independent research provider, which the team has managed from the start. Prohibition has taken that information into several PR pieces where we've had national coverage. We've used an expert spokesperson on the benefits of children being outdoors.

At the moment, we're in the final phase of the campaign, where we've had families staying at the farm doing a digital detox. We've had coverage across social and press media. Alongside that specific campaign, Prohibition has been doing regional coverage on various topics that are relevant to us, both B2B and B2C.

Several press releases written by the team have gone out and appeared in different media outlets, including tweets and regional newspapers. We've had a mixture of print and online publications. We've also been featured in a radio interview with contacts Prohibition has regarding some farming hot topic news.

What is the team composition?

We've been working primarily with four people, including a senior account manager and three other PR executive staff members.

How did you come to work with Prohibition?

We found Prohibition through a Google search. We looked at several companies, and Prohibition's proposal was the best opportunity for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent about €46,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2024, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Through the digital detox campaign, we've seen increased social media followers. We've gained about 300 new followers directly from that campaign. Regarding overall website traffic, it's hard to ascertain it specifically to PR because we have other campaigns and channels. Our organic website traffic has doubled year on year.

We've also found that our B2B work with Prohibition has increased awareness among farmers of what we do. We've had more inquiries from farmers wanting to join our network.

How did Prohibition perform from a project management standpoint?

Prohibition constantly meets deadlines and stays on budget. The team is always happy to be in touch. We have fortnightly meetings, and they're consistent with emails. When Prohibition says they'll do something by a specific date, they get it done. We use an Excel document to track the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Prohibition's integrity and honesty, communication skills, and the media coverage they've found for us are impressive. Since November 2024, we've had 51 pieces of coverage, which have reached nearly 12,000,000 people.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Streamlining communication would be a slight improvement. There are several emails back and forth, and Prohibition keeps them in separate chains, meaning we get many emails.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have clear goals and understand your brand to be able to onboard Prohibition.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Communications Manager of Black Sheep Brewery

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Family-run brewery producing a range of iconic Yorkshire beers, sold nationally and internationally.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Prohibition to accomplish?

• Public Relations
• Video project support
• Activation planning and execution

SOLUTION

How did you find Prohibition?

long-term supplier

Why did you select Prohibition over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit

How many teammates from Prohibition were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Prohibition have supported the day-to-day public relations for BSB, highlighting key opportunities with press releases and digital strategies across multiple channels.

They undertook a mass of video work to redevelop Black Sheep and sister brand videos, adapting as necessary to suit different requirements within each business.

They developed multi-channel activities during key campaigns (i.e. Christmas campaign), which worked well alongside internal digital marketing activity. This included press for on/off-trade channels, a new influencer marketing strategy and e-commerce e-alerts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We didn't set specific KPIs, but we're always looking to see strong press uptake that matches the target publications proposed for each release, reaching large readerships. Video work has been well recieved, and is being used across all business functions applicable already. E-alerts and influencer strategies generated income and awareness through our e-commerce channel.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Always appreciate quick and precise comms from the team, always willing to support and they understand what we're looking for even if we're not specific - testament to our working relationship over the last couple of years/teams experience in the industry.

What was your primary form of communication with Prohibition?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They're a bunch of friendly people who feel like a natural extension of the marketing team.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Prohibition could have done differently?

No, it's for us to make sure we're briefing in projects with plenty of time and setting clear targets - we're always safe in the knowledge that Prohibition will deliver what we want in time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing manager at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. The school is 25 years old.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Prohibition?

This academic year we wanted to produce a range of thought leadership articles for the next 25 years. We had another agency working on the project, but we had to let them go because they weren’t performing as we needed.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Prohibition has produced social media image assets and animations for us. Our faculty wrote a series of 20 thought leadership articles, and we needed accompanying images and animations to go with them for social media. They’ve also created seven pillar assets. We initially briefed them and explained we wanted to step away slightly from our brand guidelines to be a bit more interesting since it was a new and exciting project and a big milestone. We told them we wanted to veer towards a specific style of imagery where different images are stitched together.

For the animated video, we’ve provided them with a line of text. The content contractor that we brought in wanted to pick the sentences herself. She took them over to the agency, and they used them to develop the animations for each article. They’ve created all of them with the words from the brief.

Additionally, they’ve produced two launch animations between 1-1.5 minutes. The animations take people on a journey of where we are as a school and where we’re coming from. Over the next few months, we’ll be releasing all of these articles. On the other hand, the individual assets are a mixture of images and animations; there are eight animations, and the rest are images.

We have a specific thought leadership social channel, which we use to promote each article. The main channel is more focused on brand awareness. We’ve done Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Also, we’ve used it internally on our intranet, our external website, and the screens around the building.

What is the team composition?

We mainly deal with the owner. We have a project manager, and three team members are popping in and out. In addition, we have meetings with their graphic designer and creative director, and a few people check in to ensure everything is running smoothly.

How did you come to work with Prohibition?

A few people on our team had been to some webinars they ran during the pandemic lockdown. When this project came to us, another agency was booked for it, but we weren’t happy with their first draft. We remembered Prohibition from the webinars and contacted them. They were happy to help and jumped on it really quickly.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2021, and our relationship is ongoing. Currently, they’ve started working on another project. We chose them because they did well on the first one.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We contacted them knowing that they’re specialists in higher education marketing. We gave them a quick deadline and turnaround time, and they jumped in and produced something extraordinary. They’ve delivered perfectly on everything. The feedback from everyone around the school has been great — they say it’s creative and nice to look at. It’s a great change from the usual corporate stuff we produce.

All in all, we’ve seen an increase in engagement in the posts. Also, we have more followers, and the website's thought leadership section has increased in followers as well.

How did Prohibition perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent. Everything runs on time; we have a spreadsheet to see what they’re working towards. If there are issues, we have a lot of two-way communication. We use email and a Teams channel.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Working with people you get along with is key, and they’re really nice people. The team is creative, and they understand higher education and how to reach its audience, which is vital. Moreover, their work is fantastic. Everyone loves it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re doing a great job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re considering working with them, go for it. It’ll be the best decision you ever make. Also, be open with communication and make sure you set your primary goals. They’ll do everything they can to meet them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing manager at Exemplar Health Care. We have 32 nursing homes across England and support adults living with complex needs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Prohibition?

We needed to boost our profile on a local level and also within the health and social care sectors. We wanted to position ourselves as a specialist provider with in-house expertise.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have a monthly retainer with them. They do our PR when we open a new home and are recruiting for jobs. They also do some stakeholder mapping so that we can start to build those contacts. 

Prohibition does some features in the sector press with any kind of social care and health market themes. They help us to identify and secure those opportunities, and then they work with our in-house teams to write them. 

They also do some local and national stories about what we’re doing as an organization and in our homes as well. For example, one of our residents recently did a challenge fundraising for the NHS, and we did a bit of local PR around that.

What is the team composition?

There are a couple of people we’re in contact with: Fiona (PR Account Director), who is our account manager, and then Marta (Senior Account Executive), who does the more day-to-day writing and communicating with us.

How did you come to work with Prohibition?

I started in this role at the beginning of March, and we’ve obviously been on lockdown, so I wasn’t really involved in how my company chose Prohibition.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend just over £3,000 (approximately $3,700 USD) per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

My company began working with Prohibition in January 2020, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

It’s been really positive. Compared to the PR agency that we used last time, we've gotten a lot more coverage, especially in the sector press. We’re getting approached to write features for a wide range of magazines and titles. Also, due to the local PR, newspapers are coming to us now and asking for stories. 

For example, in March, we had around 22 pieces of coverage; in April, we had 10, and May, 11. Obviously, it’s been tinted a bit with COVID-19, so it’s been a bit more reactive than we would like it to be. However, we’ve seen a lot of positive things coming out of our work with Prohibition.

How did Prohibition perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re really efficient at getting back to us and keeping open communication. We have a call with them every two weeks to go through our plans for the next couple of months, and we then agree to timescales between us. They’re always efficient at sticking to those and coming back to us as needed. We communicate via email and phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

From my perspective, the account management is really proactive in finding new opportunities. They seem to have really good contacts with the media. They also provide advice; we’ve had a few crisis communications that they support us with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only thing is that we’re still working together around our writing style guide. Obviously, we want our writing to be person-centered and fit with our style. They’ve pretty much nailed it, so that’s something we’re still working through. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Be really clear about who your audience is and what your goals and outcomes need to be from the partnership.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the brand marketing manager at a specialist printing company. We provide personalized photo products such as photo books, one-off-calendars, and that sort of thing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Prohibition?

For the year before I joined, the company had actually made the marketing team into a digital marketing team, so there wasn’t really any in-house PR campaign support. We brought prohibition in to fill that skill gap on our own team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us to conduct a brand campaign, which started out with a thorough ideation process based on a brief that we gave them. They did research from there, working with a photographer and videographer, and then guided us through using paid social and provided content for our website, landing pages, email, and blog.

What is the team composition?

I’m not completely sure how many people they have on the project across their different teams, but I would guess between 5–6 teammates based on who I’ve interacted with.

How did you come to work with Prohibition?

They were brought on before I joined the team, but it’s my impression that they just gave a really compelling presentation about the value that they could offer our company and we were convinced to at least give their services a try from there.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, we spent somewhere between $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I believe the project ran from about August–December 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

From a PR point of view, we had 57 pieces of press coverage during the time we were working with them. Seven of those pieces were national coverage, and six of those were high-quality coverage including photography media and backing from high authority media websites. We were thrilled with that result because it got us in front of over 120 million people.

In terms of a more specific part of the campaign, we were encouraging people to enter into our European photo competition, and as a result of that, we gained an additional 640 entries, which for the UK is quite a successful number. It actually positioned as one of the largest, fastest-growing countries within the European group for that contest.

It was a little bit hard to compare the results because we had almost done nothing prior to this campaign, but the biggest sign of the success the campaign had was that our brand search increased by around 4000 searches between October and November, which was really telling in terms of the payout this kind of work could have.

How did Prohibition perform from a project management standpoint?

There wasn’t a lot of time for us to get to know their agency, but despite that, they did a really good job of communicating with us and making sure that we were always informed about what was going on. Whenever any challenges arose, they made sure they got all the information from us that they needed in order to tackle that successfully as well. Everything was very organized and professional throughout the process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are so much more than just a PR agency. Their whole team has a really sound understanding of content and how content works, which for us was really key because it was exactly the particular expertise we were missing in our team.

That knowledge base allowed them to not only complete the work but to educate myself and my team by showing us examples of how different elements of the campaign worked and how they had used them in the past.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing sticks out to me as something they need to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t be afraid to admit that you don’t know everything. Stay open-minded, because these agencies tend to have way more experience in these operations than you do and they can usually bring up ideas that you wouldn’t have been able to come up with yourself otherwise.