PR & Social Media for Leading Housebuilder – Summary
For more than four years, Umpf was the PR and social media agency for leading UK housebuilder Keepmoat Homes, providing full-service comms support across all nine of its UK regions in England and Scotland – from Glasgow to Kent. Our role spanned consumer PR, strategic planning, creative campaigns, proactive and reactive PR, crisis comms, content creation, and always-on press office support.
A Multi-Region PR Press Office
Acting as Keepmoat’s press office across the UK, we delivered a consistent and proactive PR programme shaped by quarterly planning calls, a centralised news calendar, and weekly activity logs. Our work ranged from celebrating employee stories – such as a Keepmoat team member competing in an international powerlifting tournament – to profiling senior leaders, championing industry themes like Women in Construction, and promoting housing developments from legal sign-off through to completion. This ensured timely, relevant stories landed in key trade, regional, and national media, raising awareness whilst consistently building and protecting Keepmoat’s reputation.
We also introduced and rolled out a PR best practice programme across all regions, upskilling internal teams on how PR works, identify strong story opportunities, and know when to use PR vs social media within their comms.
Constructing Creative Property PR Campaigns That Cut Through the Noise
We developed numerous standout property PR campaigns for Keepmoat Homes. Highlights include:
Hedgehog Highways for Housebuilder
To support biodiversity across its developments, Keepmoat launched Hedgehog Highways – 13cm-by-13cm gaps in the fencing of new-build gardens, allowing hedgehogs to safely roam between plots. We partnered with hedgehog expert and author Sally Coulthard (The Hedgehog Handbook), who provided trusted, practical advice on creating a hedgehog-friendly garden. Her tips – from planting wild corners to avoiding slug pellets – were shared across Keepmoat’s blog and social channels in the form of expert interviews, video content and engaging visuals.
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We supported the campaign with social-first creative, blog copywriting and expert Q&A content, regional and environmental PR, and community-focused messaging to encourage action at home. The result was a high-performing content campaign that helped raise awareness and demonstrated Keepmoat’s commitment to sustainable development, positioning the brand as a responsible, community-first housebuilder.
New Home Pet’s Eye View
Our canine companions play an important role in choosing a new home, so we introduced an industry first – a dog’s eye view of a show home. Following Chester the puppy as he toured one of Keepmoat’s new housing developments, including a first look around a new show home, we captured ‘dog cam’ footage to create a walk-through with a difference. The result was engaging, shareable videos that were a hit with followers on social media and gained strong pick up in the local media.
Pet Pawtrait
On social media, we tapped into Keepmoat’s customers’ love for their four-legged friends with a fun and engaging ‘Pet of the Month’ competition. Followers were encouraged to share photos of their pets in the comfort of their homes for the chance to win a Pets at Home gift card and a coveted spot in the Keepmoat Pet Hall of Fame, as well as a chance to win a bespoke ‘Pawtrait’ of their pet to hang in their new home.
The campaign not only generated a wealth of user-generated content (560 entries) but also drove strong engagement across Keepmoat’s channels – 7.2K engagements and a 238K reach. By encouraging tagging and sharing, we extended reach beyond existing followers, sparking conversations with both current homeowners and potential customers.
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Charity Activations
We helped Keepmoat share the impact of its community work through creative content and targeted PR. For its Hull Prison planter scheme – which provided inmates with joinery training to upcycle site pallets into planters for local projects – we produced a press release and social content to highlight its skills-building and community benefits. For BBC DIY SOS’s Getaway Girls charity build – a new safe space for vulnerable young women in Leeds, for which Keepmoat provided the land – we utilised drone timelapse footage to create a social content series. And for the ‘A Star for a Star’ charity campaign, we secured broadcast, print, and online coverage of Keepmoat’s sponsorship of the charity initiative.
Celebrating Careers in Construction
Employment and apprenticeships are a core focus for the construction sector, and we’ve helped Keepmoat showcase its commitment to tackling the skills gap and creating career pathways. We amplified the launch of an NHBC Training Hub for apprentices, securing regional press coverage, developed a social media plan and worked with third parties to ensure local communities were aware of the opportunities available.
Around National Apprenticeship Week, we secured national media placements while highlighting Keepmoat’s success stories through bespoke social graphics – including an engaging ‘Ask an Apprentice’ series. We also placed colleagues’ stories into local media to demonstrate real impact on people’s lives and careers.
Alongside apprenticeships, we promoted Keepmoat’s initiatives to support women in construction, spotlighting case studies and success stories across press and social to reinforce the brand’s role in building future careers in the sector.
As well as campaign-led activity, we provided regular PR support, crisis comms, and always-on press office activity. This has included regional media engagement and close liaison with Keepmoat’s regional offices, showhomes and sales teams nationwide, ensuring PR opportunities and tailored social content were maximised across all nine regions.
Housebuilder April Fools PR Stunt
For our “hot tea tap” April Fool’s PR stunt, we ‘introduced’ taps that provided hot tea ‘on tap’ in the kitchens of Keepmoat’s new homes. Later revealed to be an April Fool’s joke, we secured national coverage in The Sun, MailOnline, The Independent, and i Paper.
Keepmoat Homes Influencer Partnerships
To boost brand visibility and trust, we’ve worked with a range of influencers including:
Frank Newbold (BBC Interior Design Masters) – interiors tips
Dairy of a Lady Gardener – gardening advice
The Mindful Mixologist – alcohol-free mocktail recipes
Dom in the Kitchen – BBQ recipe content
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Property PR: The results
By combining strategic planning with tactical activation, we helped Keepmoat Homes grow its digital presence, boost brand awareness, and land standout stories in top-tier media. With social growth, national press wins, and creative campaigns that supported key business objectives – our work with Keepmoat built a lasting impact.
Highlights:
From content creation and creative campaigns to influencer partnerships and community management, we evolved the brand’s social strategy to reflect changing user behaviours, focusing on video content and engagement.
- 33 Instagram Reels in 6 months generated 100K+ organic views
- Our Pet Pawtrait Competition generated 560 entries and reached 238K+ people
- We grew the housebuilder’s Instagram from 3K to 12K+ followers, Facebook from 29K to 44K, and LinkedIn from 13K to 45K+
- Launched a Keepmoat Giphy account with 37 custom GIFs viewed over 32 million times
- We created three Instagram filters which gained 18.2k impressions
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