Umpf PR Diary – Our 2024 Highlights
- Creative
- Influencer
- PR
- Social Media
Happy 2025! We’ve hit the ground running this January at Umpf HQ, but we’re taking time to look back at the amazing work the Leeds and London teams produced during 2024. Cast your minds back…
December
The most celebratory season of all saw festive photoshoots and events across the board, as well as a very special occasion: to mark the finale of Gavin & Stacey, Cardiff shopping centre St David’s dedicated its largest shopping arcade to the show’s legendary character, Nessa. Renaming its iconic Grand Arcade to ‘Nessa’s Grand Arcade’, we worked with TV impersonator ‘Knock Off Nessa’ to unveil a commemorative blue plaque as well as hosting the centre’s own version of Nessa’s Barry Island slots.
The free-to-play slots offered up more than 2,000 themed prizes, each inspired by Gavin & Stacey, with the event and unveiling generating more than 30 pieces of coverage for the centre – and a lovely message from Nessa herself, Ruth Jones!
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November
November welcomed a royal visit, as Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal took a tour of luxury bedmaker Harrison Spinks to present it with its King’s Award for Sustainable Development. Working with the Royal press office, the Umpf team coordinated photography as well as media attendance from key regional titles including BBC Look North and ITV Calendar.
The team also rolled out more work with Bradford District & Craven Health and Care Partnership, providing families in the area with clear, accessible guidance throughout pregnancy and their child’s first two years. We developed a campaign look and feel for the infant health initiative, spanning print and digital and including a multilingual explainer video, as well as engaging digital and social content, plus a Spotify and radio campaigns.
Meanwhile, for our PR stunt to launch Clarks Village’s Festive ice rink, we created a jolly good world record for the most skating Santas.
Read how we sleighed it in November.
October
As autumn rolled in, we supported Xscape Yorkshire in bidding farewell to the legendary ‘Cas Vegas’ cactus lift at the leisure destination. With the announcement of the icon’s removal reaching more than 5 million people and sparking a #KeepTheCatcus petition, we arranged for BBC Radio Leeds to broadcast live from Xscape, where Rima Ahmed spoke to staff and guests about the farewell.
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The team were also busy supporting the launch of a new 100% recyclable EcoSeatTM – the most comfortable rail seat system ever tested – created by Spinks, the spring and components division of Harrison Spinks. Media were invited to test the new seat at a real-life simulator creating a realistic passenger experience, resulting in great trade and local coverage.
We also marked 15 years of St David’s shopping centre, which changed the face of the Cardiff shopping scene when it opened, bringing a number of retailers to Wales for the first time. We secured more than 20 pieces of coverage for the event, including a BBC interview with Centre Director Helen Morgan – who has been at the centre all 15 years. Read more in our October blog.
If that wasn’t enough, we were excited to celebrate an award win for WasteLess Wonderland, the UK’s first alternative Christmas market. Launched for Westgate Oxford in 2023 alongside Hemingway Design, who created and delivered the experience, our entry was named Christmas Campaign of the Year at the retail industry’s Sceptre Awards. Right in time to launch into the 2024 festive season!
September
In September, we kicked off our enhanced influencer programme across the Landsec portfolio, aiming to raise the profile of some of the UK’s most iconic shopping centres and outlets. We continue to work with huge names and incredible talent, creating authentic content that fits seamlessly with their tone of voice and generating great engagement.
@summerfox___ you havent had the real british experience until you’ve spent the day at @Bluewater Ad #shoppingvlog #dateideas #bluewater ♬ original sound – Summer Fox
Read more about our influencer activities here.
We also supported dog-friendly shopping outlet Clarks Village in its search for a new CEO – Canine Executive Officer. Our weekend-long Pawsome Pooch event celebrated all things dog, with photoshoots and pampering, as well as hosting the CEO search competition which saw 175 entries. Gorgeous Dudley was crowned the winner, and is now a Clarks Village VIP. Read our Pawsome Pooch case study.
July – August
Across the summer months, we celebrated heritage with luxury bedmaker Harrison Spinks, which had brought new life to a 100-year-old bed that had been cherished by three generations of a Shropshire family. Coverage around the story reached more than 11 million people, which highlights including an interview with BBC Radio Shropshire.
The team supported St David’s and owner Landsec on comms around an exciting proposed development at the Cardiff shopping centre, securing an exclusive interview for Centre Director Helen Morgan with BBC Wales. Coverage also featured across key Cardiff media, reaching more than 47 million – read more here.
We also marked Yorkshire Day in August with a stunt at Xscape Yorkshire: working with gourmet popcorn-maker Joe and Seph’s, we created a rhubarb and custard-flavoured popcorn to be given out at the site in return for pay-as-you-feel donations to a local charity. Umpf managed all elements of the campaign, from popcorn to PR, and also arranged influencer visits to coincide with the occasion.
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Check out more of our summer coverage here.
June
A summer love story: in June, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour visited Cardiff, home of St David’s shopping centre. Raising awareness of the centre as a pre-concert destination, our *Mastermind* plan was to create a free Friendship Bracelet Lucky Dip event, tying into the trend of fans making, trading, and wearing the bracelets to tour dates. We secured 22 pieces of coverage – including national pieces in Indy100 and the Daily Mirror – and guest feedback was beyond our *Wildest Dreams*.
@itsoncardiff 📣 Calling all Swifties!! St David’s Cardiff is hosting the city’s biggest friendship bracelet kit giveaway today up stairs next to River Island today untol 4pm #swifties #Taylorswift #Cardiff ♬ Into – The Eras Tour
June also saw us celebrating Pride Month, coupling-up with Love Island and welcoming Xscape Yorkshire and Milton Keynes to the client fold, immediately kicking off with some fun and family-focused influencer partnerships. Read the June PR round-up.
May
May saw a Farke-ing good stunt for Trinity Leeds – just eight days after Leeds secured a place in the Championship Play-Off Final, we unveiled a 294-square-meter portrait of Leeds United manager Daniel Farke as a ‘good luck’ message to the club. The stunt received blanket coverage across Yorkshire, including broadcast pieces on both BBC and ITV, plus mentions in The Sun and the Daily Mail.
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The team also rubbed shoulders with football royalty during the launch of immersive football experience Ballerz at Bluewater, with Rio Ferdinand, Bobby Zamora, and Robert Carlos in attendance. We managed media interviews with Metro, Daily Mail, Global Radio, and The Sun, as well as hosting a private preview for ITV. Read more about this and all the May PR campaigns here.
April
April saw the 4lite team expand their successful work with women in the electrical trade, launching a partnership with Els Electrics and seeing reach of more than 402k.
We also celebrated another of our influencer partnerships achieving amazing numbers – this time with Carys Whittaker for shopping centre St David’s in Cardiff. Carys’ reel of her day out shopping at St David’s has more than 1 million views (and counting)!
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It was another bumper month for amazing results for our clients too – take a look at some of the national coverage we achieved across March and April in our round-up.
March
Perfectly-timed with the chilly winter weather, in March we launched the Energy-Saving Recipe Book for cooking appliance brand Belling, which has secured a whopping 200+ pieces of coverage so far, with the recipes and news hooks continuing to generate interest to date.
March also marked the 25th birthday of shopping centre Bluewater, with more than 45 pieces of coverage across BBC News, The Sun, The Express, and more. Check out our drone PR stunt:
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You can read the full March blog here.
February
In February, we launched a series of influencer partnerships for lighting brand 4lite, including trade-focussed content with electrical experts such as Kornelia, a prominent voice for women in the electrical trade.
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The team also secured coverage reaching more than 10 million people for Southside Shopping Centre’s Black and Ethical Fashion Show, showcasing designs by Wandsworth-based ethical fashion designer Fée Uhssi.
Hot on the heels of Darren’s arrival, in February we welcomed Charlie, Senior Account Director Milly’s gorgeous baby boy.
January
The start of 2024 saw some incredible coverage for Leeds’ White Rose Shopping Centre, highlighting its amazing accessibility facilities. Centre Director Steven Foster spoke to BBC Radio Leeds about White Rose’s newly-installed sanitary facilities in its men’s toilets, as part of Prostate Cancer UK’s ‘Boys Need Bins’ campaign.
We also celebrated the arrival of our Studio Creative Designer Darren’s beautiful baby girl, Riley!