Brands we have
built fame for.

The Challenge

Brave PR was challenged to deliver high-impact quality media relations results for this female-founded ready-to-drink cocktail client. The budget had to cover comprehensive PR support including trade and consumer coverage, influencer partnerships, and founder positioning.

• Reduced budget while maintaining ambitious KPIs
• Original target: 7 million monthly audience reach
• Comprehensive deliverables spanning PR, social strategy and business development
• Competitive beverage market requiring innovative approaches

Our strategic approach

We developed a targeted, efficient strategy focusing on high-impact placements and proactive campaign development - maximising every media opportunity to deliver exceptional value.

What we did

Strategic foundation

• Annual PR and social media strategy developed
• Comprehensive trade and consumer media database created
• Online press kit delivered
• Ongoing press office function established

Campaign execution

• Successful 'Lychee Cocktail' launch across trade and consumer media
• Hero national PR: Closer, Stylist, Fabulous, Good Housekeeping, Heat, The Sun
• New product and distribution announcements managed
• Bi-weekly strategy meetings maintained

Influencer & digital

• Christmas influencer campaign - 10 partnerships delivered (target: 3 annually)
• 32 media and influencer sample requests fulfilled
• TV drop campaign executed
• Affiliate partnership established (Tradedoubler)

Founder positioning

• Co-founder Frankie strategy developed and activated
• Ongoing strategic business support provided

The Impact

Despite working with 50% reduced resources, we exceeded all performance targets while delivering comprehensive strategic support. The campaign established The Drinks Bureau as a recognised industry player and provided a strong foundation for continued growth.

ROI achievement: 394% over-performance against reach targets while working with a reduced retainer, demonstrating exceptional value and strategic efficiency.

The Task

Caleño is a range of distilled non-alcoholic spirits inspired by the sun-drenched spirit of Colombia. Founder Ellie Webb was on a mission to bring joy to not-drinking by capturing the intense flavours, rhythms and colours of her vibrant motherland. Caleño came to Brave with the following PR challenges:

• A small media pool meant lack of coverage
• Coverage was mostly product-led, not mission-focused
• Growing competition within the category
• Founder Ellie didn't have a close relationship with media and journalists

The KPIs

• Support Caleño in doubling brand awareness (from 10% to 20%) by 2023
• Secure a piece of TV coverage on a targeted show - This Morning, Saturday Kitchen or equivalent during Dry January 2022
• Support Ellie on securing speaking/Q&A features with relevant health & wellness brands and media titles
• September to December - average 20 million reach per month

What we did

• Implemented a Founder Strategy and journalist 'meet-ups' with Founder Ellie
• Implemented an 'issues and angles' approach to press office - driving widespread BBC radio coverage on the 'Hangxiety' news story for Sober October and creating a Dry January campaign
• Supported the integrated marketing campaign with impactful media relations
• Managed trade media announcements for brand trade news
• Hosted a series of influencer and media events to grow brand buzz

The Results

• Secured not 1 but 3 pieces of national TV coverage for the brand - Sunday Brunch, Steph's Packed Lunch, Saturday Kitchen
• Achieved monthly target of over 20 million reach through PR
• Caleño achieved 3 significant grocery listings - Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Asda
• Founder Ellie developed her own successful podcast interviewing business owners
• TV coverage amplified over owned channels to drive buzz and awareness

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The Challenge

Biona Organic, part of Windmill Organics, is a heritage organic food brand with strong retailer presence but limited cultural cut-through and consumer brand awareness. January presents both opportunity and challenge: it is the most competitive month in the health calendar. Biona needed Brave PR to create a consumer campaign in January that would cut through the noise and establish Biona's rye bread as a health hero for modern consumers.

• Drive brand awareness from 'on-shelf organic' to bold thought leader
• Own a cultural moment distinct from Dry January / Veganuary
• Drive Q1 rye-bread sales and secure a new national supermarket listing
• Position rye as modern convenience food aligned with gut health
• Deliver national coverage in lifestyle, food, health & consumer media

Market context: Despite 75% of UK consumers expressing interest in gut-health foods, awareness of rye bread as a regular household staple remained low. The challenge was to make rye relevant by driving new occasions and positioning Biona as the most-recognised, best-quality rye brand.

Our Strategic Approach

Rye January. To cut through the January media landscape, we created an entirely new cultural moment: an annual, positive food-swap campaign designed to encourage the nation to discover Biona's 4-ingredient organic rye bread - rooted in healthy convenience, low-intervention food, and simple-swap health behaviours. Rather than asking consumers to give something up, we educated them on the benefits and invited them to simply swap their usual bread for the month.

Tactical elements

• News-led authority: Commissioned original research uncovering a "bread knowledge gap" - the majority of Britons cannot identify the top 10 ingredients in supermarket bread. This became the news hook, reframing everyday bread within the ultra-processed-food conversation.
• Expert credibility: Partnered with Dr Rupy Aujla, UK's most trusted nutrition TV doctor and genuine Biona customer, to deliver campaign messages creatively and authentically to core audiences.
• Product sampling: Invited 15 journalists to document a month-long Rye January challenge, receiving branded hampers with recipe cards, scorecards and rye samples - resulting in print coverage from Prima, Daily Telegraph, Easy Food Ireland and major social amplification.
• Embargoed launch: Timed research embargo for 5 January to dominate early-month health coverage across short- and mid-lead consumer media.
• Geographic expansion: Developed Irish soda-bread angle for culturally tailored relevance in a strategic growth market.
• Cultural integration: Aligned with the Real Bread Campaign and integrated earned media with Biona's paid marketing for surround-sound effect.

The Results

Earned media

The campaign dominated bread conversations during January - a category rarely seen in mainstream headlines. Against a KPI of 14 pieces of coverage at 14M reach:

• 133 pieces of coverage across UK and Irish media (9.7M audience reach)
• 257 brand mentions in mainstream news, consumer, lifestyle, regional & trade media
• Notable placements: Daily Telegraph (Dr Rupy interview), The Independent, The Mail Online, Prima (print feature), Easy Food Ireland

Dr Rupy Instagram reel

• 145,370 video views with 0.33 engagement rate (vs 0.30 industry benchmark)
• 1,739 recipe saves - high-intent indicator of purchase consideration
• Nearly two-thirds of views from non-followers - strong new audience acquisition

Dr Rupy newsletter

• 47.32% open rate (vs 20-25% industry benchmark) - more than double the average
• 1,964 branded clicks including 1,249 to 'Biona's rye bread' and 386 to biona.co.uk
• 152,293 emails sent at 99.36% delivery rate

Sales & commercial impact

• Biona Rye volume sales +20.9% YoY, significantly outpacing total bread category (-4.5%) and branded bread (-2.4%)
• Value share +8% vs total branded bread at +1.7%
• Sales surged from ~4,400 baseline units to ~7,500 in campaign launch week (70% uplift)
• Peaked at ~8,700 units in final week of January (75% uplift vs baseline)
• eShop volumes spiked alongside earned media peaks, demonstrating direct pathway from editorial to purchase
• New national supermarket listing for two rye-bread SKUs secured to start May 2026

Campaign impact: Rye January elevated rye bread from occasional to essential, positioned Biona as defender of real food, inserted the brand into the UPF debate with authority, and created an annual ownable cultural property that will become the platform for ongoing education around rye's health benefits.

Media Coverage Highlights

• The Independent · Ultra-processed bread, rye, fibre and GLP-1
• The Independent · Rye for breakfast - the NHS-backed British switch
• Daily Mail · Three in four Britons unable to identify the ingredients in their daily bread

"We've really valued the impact Brave has had on our brand. From clever, impactful campaign ideas and strong press office to seeing a clear correlation with our commercial results - and they're a brilliant team to work with."

Gemma Williams - Marketing Director, Biona Organic

The Challenge

Brave PR was challenged to transform a disinterested media landscape into a powerful movement supporting working women. With zero budget for paid media and facing significant scepticism about women-only spaces, we needed to drive mainstream awareness, secure 2,000+ Academy sign-ups, and successfully launch the UK's first female-focused members' club in London.

• Zero marketing budget - media relations was the only growth driver
• Negative market perception - journalists sceptical after The Wing's controversial NYC launch
• Ambitious business targets - drive global growth, launch new club, secure 2,000 Academy sign-ups
• Complex positioning - avoid being seen as anti-male, elitist or not aspirational enough
• Crisis management - ongoing newsjacking and reputation support required

Our strategic approach

A phased campaign strategy to systematically transform media scepticism into a powerful national movement supporting working women.

Phase 1 · Build credibility & establish the need

Established the economic argument with robust research and data - 1 in 10 UK women want to start businesses but lack confidence; only 1 in 6 corporate leadership positions are held by women; Harvard research shows women who network are 2× more likely to be promoted. This shifted the narrative from 'anti-men' to economic empowerment.

Phase 2 · Secure positive coverage through exclusive access

Engaged key national media with 'first look' exclusives, turning sceptical journalists into advocates. Strategic media partnerships were cultivated across the political spectrum for balanced launch coverage.

Phase 3 · Launch the #SisterhoodWorks movement

Creative campaign demonstrating that when women support each other at work, they achieve more. Influencer activation, campaign collateral and 100+ volunteer-led meet-ups nationwide.

Phase 4 · Strategic founder profiling

Positioned co-founders Debbie Wosskow and Anna Jones as thought leaders through profile interviews beyond traditional homes - including political and hard-news platforms.

Phase 5 · Academy launch via Facebook partnership

Generated £75,000 worth of earned media value and drove 4,000 enrolments.

Phase 6 · Scale via book deal & international expansion

Culminated with a Penguin book deal and the announcement of AllBright Mayfair and LA - securing £9m in expansion funding.

The Results

Prior to Brave, AllBright had secured 56 pieces of media coverage in 2017. In 2018 the total was 315 - including 88 pieces of significant national print and broadcast coverage. 60% was classed as overtly supportive and 35% as supportive.

Over 200 media and VIPs attended the AllBright press preview and launch - including Naomie Harris, MOBO Awards founder Kanya King, Under-Secretary of State for Business Margot James MP and House of Lords peer Martha Lane Fox.

Influential profile pieces ran in The Times, Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Independent, Bloomberg, BBC World Service, BBC R4 Today Programme, Sky News, Good Morning Britain, Condé Nast Traveller, Harper's Bazaar, Red and Grazia. High-profile journalists supported #SisterhoodWorks online with selfies and video messages - BBC newsreader Zeinab Badawi, Sky News' Sarah-Jane Mee. Debbie Wosskow won the London Evening Standard's Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 Award.

Business growth: £9m secured to fund a second and third club, meeting UK demand and expanding internationally. AllBright Mayfair and AllBright LA opened in 2019. Co-founders signed a book deal with Penguin.

The Client

Free Free is a global ecosystem of change - a social enterprise, a foundation, and a membership club - built around a single, powerful mission: to advance the physical, emotional, and financial freedom of girls and women worldwide.

Founded in Brazil in 2018 by former Vogue editor and creative director Yasmine McDougall Sterea, Free Free began with workshops for women recovering from violence and has since grown into an internationally recognised movement. Blending art, fashion, and sound, its work transforms fear, shame, and guilt into creative empowerment.

The organisation's impact is substantial and documented: more than 50,000 lives touched and over £70M in measurable global impact. Free Free has earned recognition from Inspiring Women UN & Berkeley, Glamour, and Forbes, and partners with institutions including Harvard University's Center for African Studies on initiatives such as its flagship period-poverty programme in The Gambia. It also consults with global brands - among them Unilever, PepsiCo, Google, and L'Oréal - co-creating communications campaigns and leadership training that grow consciousness and creativity inside the world's largest companies.

In 2024, Free Free set its sights on the UK, marking its arrival with a landmark gala in London.

The Brief

Brave was appointed to establish Free Free - and its founder, Yasmine McDougall Sterea - as a leading global voice in women's empowerment and conscious change.

The strategy needed to reach three distinct audiences at once: business leaders and investors, female change-makers, and community stakeholders. Leveraging Yasmine's authority as founder and CEO, our objective was to raise her profile and the organisation's, attract investment, forge partnerships, and deepen community engagement - all while introducing a Brazilian-born movement to a new market from a standing start.

What We Did

• Repositioned the brand. Brave drafted and facilitated Free Free's new global messaging and positioning, and wrote the copy for its new global website - giving the organisation a clear, compelling story to take into the UK and beyond.
• Launched Free Free into the UK. We introduced the movement to the British market with a coordinated media announcement, anchored around its first UK gala at Ladbroke Hall, London, on 6 November 2024. The immersive event brought together more than 180 artists, entrepreneurs, leaders, and creatives.
• Secured high-profile coverage. We placed Yasmine and Free Free in Forbes, LuxeGen, and other significant national and international outlets, building credibility across business and lifestyle press.
• Amplified founder thought leadership. We secured Yasmine a speaking slot at the inaugural SXSW London in 2025, positioning her among the event's global innovators.
• Supported flagship moments. Brave supported Free Free at the World Economic Forum in Davos and at Oxford University's sidebar event, and facilitated a leadership breakfast for Yasmine ahead of the programme - convening the right people at the right moments.

The Results

Brave took Free Free from a Brazilian success story to a credible presence on the UK and global stage - with a refreshed brand, a new global website, a standout launch event, and a founder now recognised across Forbes, LuxeGen, SXSW London, Davos, and Oxford.

The Task

ZENii is a doctor-formulated British skincare and supplement brand. The products are clinical, high-performance products with a loyal fan base - however the brand lacked awareness and visibility in a crowded market. ZENii hired Brave on a retained three-days-per-week basis to create and manage all brand PR activity for two years, to prepare the brand to the level required to seek investment funding in order to scale.

The brief was broader than just PR and media relations: to develop and implement a new marketing and PR strategy for the brand across paid, owned and earned channels, acting as an in-house marketing lead and leading a small in-house team.

The brief included launching a new vegan collagen supplement, a new probiotic supplement and a new intelligent collagen creamer.

What We Did

• Re-brand: Brave managed and implemented a total business re-brand - new colour palette, new logos and brand identity, including new product labels for the supplements range.
• New consumer and stockist websites: Brave successfully managed two new fully comprehensive websites, moving from WordPress to Shopify. This included a new affiliate network via UpPromote and a new loyalty points programme.
• Launch event: Brave facilitated end-to-end a VIP launch event for the new vegan collagen and probiotic at Café Royal in London. Over 40 top media, influencers and stockists attended, including Alice Hart-Davis and Victoria Woodhall from Get The Gloss.
• Brand ambassador: Kate Thornton signed as ZENii's first brand ambassador, driving social media advertising and website content.
• Influencer partnerships: Created and implemented new long-term influencer brand-ambassador partnerships with @seenonsarah (37k) for skincare, @allthingszanne (11.9k, Boots No7 ambassador) for probiotic Biome Buddies, @thehousebuild (200k) for ZENii Fusion, @plantpowerdoctor (114k) and celebrity Suzanne Shaw (143k) for vegan collagen Beauty Glow - plus an ongoing paid partnership with Ashley Stobart @thecosmeticconsult (69k).
• Innovation: Launched a new collagen for men and a new intelligent collagen coffee creamer.

Media Coverage Highlights

• The Independent · Best collagen supplements - IndyBest
• Women's Health · Collagen banking - the long read
• Aesthetics Journal · ZENii launches new collagen creamer supplement
• Get The Gloss · Collagen - not just a beauty molecule
• Harper's Bazaar · Dr Ward's Skin School - polynucleotides
• The Telegraph · Best collagen products - ZENii Fusion
• Expert Reviews · Best skin supplement - ProHydrate
• Natural Products · Spotlight - ProCollagen Max
• Tatler · Medics of the Moment - Dr Johanna Ward
• Get The Gloss · Rebalance - best menopause skincare
• The Guardian · "Can collagen really turn back the clock?" - ZENii Fusion
• Good Housekeeping · How collagen supplements work - ZENii Fusion
• Marie Claire · Skin changes in menopause
• SheerLuxe · How a GP stays healthy this time of year
• Daily Mail · Beauty brands court the middle-aged market
• The Skin Nerd · ZENii Fusion featured
• Red Magazine · ZENii Fusion featured

The Campaign

An NHS campaign supported by NHS England, the YMCA and Government ministers, #IAMWHOLE aimed to combat mental health stigma and encourage young people to seek wellbeing support.

Working with video production agency Spirit, we created the campaign launch strategy and all media relations for the campaign.

A partnership with a young musician was at the heart of the campaign strategy - pop star, actor and one half of hip-hop duo Rizzle Kicks, Jordan Stephens, who had written a song 'Whole' about dealing with mental health issues.

Spirit filmed the music video for the song, including NHS branding and featuring young people from the YMCA's Right Here project who had lived experience of mental ill health.

The campaign featured Jordan, James Corden, Dermot O'Leary and Ed Sheeran, and went live on the same day as the Whole music video - World Mental Health Day.

Jordan launched the campaign to members of the press and campaign stakeholders with a live performance of 'Whole' in the new British Airways i360 - the world's tallest (and circular) moving observation tower on Brighton beach - with a call to action to show support for challenging stigma through the posting of a social media selfie showing a circle drawn on the palm of your hand.

The Results

• 222 pieces of coverage with audience reach of over 120 million
• Global engagement - #IAMWHOLE selfies posted worldwide
• Hashtag #IAMWHOLE trended on Twitter all day on World Mental Health Day
• 1 million organic earned views of campaign and music video in 4 weeks
• Praised in Parliamentary debate on mental health
• Supported by Government ministers
• Special visit request from Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt
• 35% increase in counselling referrals for 13-25-year-olds
• Voted PR Week 'Favourite Campaign' vs Sky, easyJet and NSPCC

Award Wins

• Winner of B2C Campaign of The Year, The Drum Marketing Awards
• Highly Commended (Communications), Health Service Journal Value Award

"The campaign results are really impressive."

Prime Minister's Office & Cabinet Office

Media Coverage Highlights

The Task

Despite being the 'jewel in the crown' of UK-wide hotel group The Cairn Collection, Stoke Place had a poor local reputation due to previous ownership, and restaurant bookings were low. As a favourite destination of Brave, we were tasked with helping to put Stoke Place back on the map.

We created a strategy to support the restaurant launch and re-launch of the hotel, as well as a dynamic events strategy to create ongoing buzz. Our PR plan supported:

• Corporate reputation building
• Wedding sales
• Support for events
• Social media strategy
• Restaurant launch news generation

Brave also created the strategy for a partnership with national charity the Queen's Nursing Institute, which launched a year-long fundraising initiative within the hotel's King & Lamb restaurant.

The Results

• Significant national and regional media coverage for the hotel - exceeding coverage targets
• Direct increase in wedding sales and restaurant bookings
• Stoke Place's first Veganuary menu, resulting in TV coverage

"We have seen phenomenal growth in our audience reach and press coverage and the targeted segment campaigns have been highly successful."

Adam Salter - General Manager, Stoke Place Country House Hotel