Let's go walkies with Wadworth
01 Challenge
Wadworth, an independent family brewery has been brewing beer in the beautiful market town of Devizes, in Wiltshire, since 1875. In addition, they operate in excess of 150 pubs across the South West of England and London and work hard to ensure their pubs offer a warm, welcoming atmosphere with excellent quality food and drink.
Wadworth’s primary objective for 2022 was to reach their target audiences and communicate key reasons to visit. Dogs and the dog-friendly nature of Wadworth pubs was identified as a primary USP – giving customers with dogs a reason to visit their pubs, safe in the knowledge that their pets were not just allowed, but very much encouraged.
Wadworth contacted Brew to create a campaign that helped the company showcase this unique offering to the right audience while driving footfall into their pubs.
02 Approach
To coincide with National Dog Day on Friday 26th August 2022 Brew helped create and publish a range of content that culminated in a sponsored Wadworth Dog Walk to and from the Wadworth Brewery Tap & Shop in Devizes.
The Tap & Shop was set up as a final pitstop for the dogs and their owners with lots of treats, including dog-friendly ice cream, cake, biscuits and sausage rolls. The event was designed to give dogs the attention they deserve, focus on their importance to Wadworth and raise some much-needed funds for The Dogs Trust.
The Wadworth Dog Walk would be advertised from 15th July 2022 through web, email and social media (including paid campaigns). A digital form was created on their website for people to register with a payment of £10 to be split between the charity, as well as contributing to the dog treats.
The Brewery Tap & Shop was dressed with a range of touches to ensure the dogs took centre-stage for the day. We rolled out a red carpet on entry, premium dog bowls throughout the pub, bottomless treats, comfy dog beds and blankets and cheeky signage including ‘Dogs welcome; Humans tolerated’.
To enhance the experience for owners we arranged posed photographs of each dog for owners to keep as a memory, as well as providing amazing content for the Wadworth social channels.
We also carried out a full PR campaign with local press and radio in Devizes and throughout the local region. Photography opportunities on the day were wonderful and we pushed for pre-awareness to get everybody excited about the day in the lead up to the event.
As a dog-loving brewery with dog-friendly pubs across the south and west, we couldn’t have been more delighted to see so many dogs and their pawrents join us for Wadwoof Walkies. We loved hosting the walk and having everyone back to the Brewery Tap afterwards for a well-deserved beer and treats for the dogs. It was so great to be able to get people and pups together socially, enjoy time together and raise money for an extremely worthy cause.
Sarah Berry, Head of Marketing
03 Outcome
The campaign reached over 100,000 people with an ROI of 3.8p per person reached.
On top of this were a range of secondary wins including the creation of website pages and news articles that highlighted the dog-friendly credentials of Wadworth pubs, plus high social media engagement around the posts published on the Wadworth channels. A charity partnership was formed with the Dogs Trust through a Dogs Trust representative attending the event and £300+ raised for the charity.
The website enjoyed increased optimisation as a result of back-links gained from reputable third party media sites including Castledown FM and Visit Wiltshire. Great relationships and goodwill was enjoyed with the local community as a result of over 50 people attending and 37 dogs. We also secured an interview on BBC Radio Wiltshire for head of marketing, Sarah Berry – a station with a circulation of 69,000 people.
As first events go, Wadworth Dog Walk was a resounding success, so much so, there has already been many requests to hold it again next year. Watch this space!
£300+ raised for the charity
ROI of 3.8p per person reached
Over 100,000 reach
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