A busy month of activity as we lean into spooky season and festive fun – read on to find out what we’ve been up to in October.
Trinity Leeds Drums Up a Spark! for Light Night
This October, the streets of Leeds were illuminated once again for Light Night Leeds – and one of its most iconic performers made a triumphant return to Trinity Leeds.
The internationally renowned Spark! drummers brought their electrifying blend of live music, dazzling light, and theatrical performance beneath Trinity’s iconic glass dome.
The Umpf team drove awareness with a proactive media campaign – securing blanket regional coverage including BBC News and a double-page feature in the Yorkshire Evening Post ahead of the event.
Post-event, we continued to amplify visibility with further features on Leeds Live, Leeds+ Social, Welcome to Yorkshire and Yorkshire Post, helping cement Trinity Leeds’ place at the heart of an unforgettable city celebration.
Welcoming Captain D’s to Westwood Cross in a UK First
Captain D’s, the leading American seafood and chicken restaurant chain, made its highly anticipated UK debut at our client Westwood Cross shopping centre, marking the brand’s first international expansion.
To drive awareness and footfall to this exciting new dining destination, we delivered a targeted restaurant launch PR campaign, securing national and regional media coverage across key outlets including The Sun, Time Out, FOODbible, Kent Online and KentLive, as well as trade publications such as The Caterer, Propel and Franchising.com.
Following a successful opening day, we also coordinated an exclusive interview with Captain D’s Chairman, Daryl Stutchbury for MCA Insights where he discussed the brand’s ambitions and growth plans in the UK market.
In total, the campaign achieved 45 pieces of coverage and a reach of over 49 million, successfully positioning Westwood Cross as a destination for exciting new dining experiences while generating widespread media buzz for Captain D’s first UK opening.
One of our most special wins yet: White Rose Community Awards
Earlier this month, we supported White Rose Shopping Centre with its annual Community Awards: an event showcasing the most inspiring individuals and organisations across Leeds.
However, things were a bit different for us this year… as Umpf was among the winners! Usually found supporting behind the scenes, our team was honoured to receive our very own Community Award, plus a jar of honey produced by the bees kept on the roof of the shopping centre.
We were delighted to be named across such impressive local heroes, with our nomination crediting our work to support the centre through its busiest year on record:
“The team at Umpf certainly go above and beyond to ensure they play their part in helping us continue to grow the footfall and fame of the shopping centre… Umpf’s local knowledge and interest ensure they advise the very best ideas, initiatives, and people to partner with for long term success of the centre, providing great counsel and guidance to ensure our tone of messaging, timing and delivery is reflective of the audience.”
The award has taken pride of place on our shelf. Thank you to the team for the kind nomination, and for inviting us to be part of such a wonderful event. We also secured some fantastic coverage for all of the (other!) worthy winners, including a double-page spread in the Yorkshire Evening Post – a double-win.
And a few more shortlistings, for good measure
October also saw the release of the Revo Awards shortlist, which recognise work in the retail, leisure, and placemaking sectors. We’re delighted that three of our retail marketing campaign entries have been nominated for work carried out with St David’s Cardiff and Clarks Village, as well as entries we supported the Bluewater and Gunwharf Quays centre teams with across the ESG Excellence and Team of the Year categories.
Winners are announced in December – watch this space!
Creating Noise for CrowdedHouse
We’ve been working with CrowdedHouse in October to help raise awareness of their brand-new restaurant, on behalf of our client, Trinity Leeds – and secured a three-page feature in Absolutely Yorkshire. The piece showcased an exclusive Q&A with double rosette-winning head chef Simon Jewitt and explored Simon’s creative vision, culinary journey and aspirations for CrowdedHouse, helping to position the restaurant as one of Yorkshire’s most exciting new dining destinations.
Read more about our restaurant experience.
Welcome to a new face
And finally, we’re excited to welcome Alison, who is joining us as a PR intern while she completes her studies. In her own words:
Hi I’m Ali! I’m a final year journalism student at Leeds Beckett University.
I’m excited to join the world of PR and help brands tell their stories to people and have fun with it along the way.
So far, I’ve loved drafting social posts and coming up with new stories to pitch to journalists, and now I’m excited to get my hands on my first press release.
I love PR because of the social aspect. When I’m not working at my laptop I like going to the gym, doing Pilates with friends, and coming third in every pub quiz in Leeds.
