Urban cidery Hawkes tasked us with growing brand awareness amongst a targeted urban demographic and differentiating its product from that of traditional rural cider brands. Our mission was to position the Hawkes brand as an attitude and personality, intrinsically linked to summer city living.

So, what did we do? We hatched a plan to bring the world-class fruity urban cider to some of the most iconic (but very local) London festivals, and to authentically connect with audiences through shared summer experiences, the universal love of music, and the power of influence.

Our targets: Festivalgoers at Mighty Hoopla, Wide Awake, South Facing and Krankbrother.

Between May and August, our on-the-ground team – consisting of social media expert, photographer, videographer and comedy extraordinaire, Cecily Hitchcock - generated buzz by bringing the vibes, laughs, and cans of delicious Hawkes cider to thirsty festivalgoers, whilst creating compelling first person organic and more curated content to share both in real-time and post-event on Hawkes’s IG. Festivalgoer UGC was also monitored, and if deemed worthy, was ‘framed’ using the City Cider to the Core campaign visuals and re-shared to Hawkes’s Instagram feed.

Partnerships with on-brand influencers to attend the events ensured we were able to expand our reach amongst a targeted audience, whilst further boosting engagement and impressions.

The result wasn't just banging content over the summer period, but a significant increase across all IG metrics throughout the course of the 3+ month campaign: 648% growth in net followers and a 53% uptick in engagements. Not bad for a summer spent capturing and sharing the joy and spirit of urban summer living.