The brand

Pukka is the number one bestselling hot pie brand across the UK, selling around 60 million pies a year in the UK and abroad. Founded by the Storer family in Leicestershire in 1963, Pukka is a family orientated independent company with a 350-strong team who have a passion for pies.
 

The challenge

Pukka is a well-known brand, but hot pies have become less relevant in people’s lives. In a market full of convenience, ready meals and quick service restaurants, Pukka needed to convince customers to choose their pies whether in or out of home, whilst creating some excitement around the brand.

As part of a larger agency review to support this ambitious growth strategy, Pukka approached us looking to specifically appoint a new PR & Social agency within their agency roster. The challenge was to future-proof the brand for the next few years, building brand awareness and overall engagement through consumer and trade PR and social channels. 

When appointing the agency, chemistry was extremely important to the Pukka team, as well as being open to cross agency and fluid working in order to drive fully integrated campaigns. Pukka were seeking an authentic, trustworthy and transparent relationship with an agency who had a genuine passion to work with them. It was also essential to have a non-London centric mentality.
 

The Creativebrief process 

Following extensive analysis by Creativebrief, reviewing the market, and identifying those agencies that met the client’s key criteria, a longlist was selected to go through to RFI stage. Based on responses and capabilities, this was then cut down to a shortlist to go through to the next round: Chemistry+. 

Chemistry+ is a non-traditional approach and involves one session that includes agencies showcasing their credentials and relevant case studies, and a homework question. This process allowed the Pukka team to see what it could be like to work with each of the agencies. The homework question probed agencies on their suggested approach to building brand awareness using PR & social, which allowed the client to see the top-line thinking
from each of the agencies.
 

The result

Richmond & Towers were appointed as Pukka’s fully integrated trade and consumer PR and social media agency, fighting off strong competition from a five-way pitch. Each of the agencies showed passion and expertise, however Richmond & Towers demonstrated they could take the lead from the offset, and the Pukka team felt they were in safe hands.
 

To find out more how Creativebrief better connects brands and agencies, please get in touch today on +44 (0)20 7478 8200 or email [email protected]