The final episode of London after Lockdown is here!

On this Kent Special Episode, Liam meets Marco from Pierluigi;s, Joe Courtney from Soul Town Festival, Alex from The Pearl and Leigh at Eatwell in Beckenham.

First stop is Pierluiggi’s, where Liam chats with Marco about how things have been for him since lockdown. This positive and refreshing interview is a great watch after a lot of negative hospitality news recently. Showing his initiative and creativity, Marco tells Liam the changes he has put into place, and how they have had a huge, positive impact on his business.

For some businesses that have been up and running for decades, it can be difficult for them to understand how social media and creative marketing can benefit their business. That certainly isn’t the case at Pierluigi, where Marco has learnt to use platforms like Instagram to help his business to keep on growing. Can fans of the restaurant expect to see a second branch opening soon? You’ll have to watch this week’s episode to find out.

Next we visit Joe Courtney at his new pub The Bulls Head. As well as owning two pubs, Joe is one of the brains behind Soul Town festival, which used its platform to help the NHS and others in the industry during Lockdown. That then developed into Door Step Sessions, which provided outdoor entertainment for anyone who was really struggling during lockdown. He explains the highs and lows over the last few months for him and how he hopes for things to build over the next year.

 

For location number three we head to The Pearl in Beckenham to speak to Alex and find out how he is adapting to post lockdown life. He explains to Liam how the local restaurants built a community to support each other and to get people in the area through the pandemic.

Finally, it’s time to head to Beckenham to speak to Leigh at Eatwell. “The after math of a nuclear Holocaust” is how Leigh describes post lockdown life at the start of the interview, but don’t worry, the chat takes a far more positive turn from there. Takings are up for the business compared to this time last year, perhaps local people are ready for that health kick and are stepping up to support their local businesses. He’s optimistic about the future and excited to see his brand grow.

For all of these interviews and a whole lot more, head over to Posh Cockney TV now! This will be the final episode in this series of London after Lockdown but it certainly isn’t the end of PCTV.

Emma Bolton | PR Assistant | emma@poshcockney.co.uk | poshcockney.co.uk


Your Bridge to Turkey

Overview

Posh Cockney was hired to manage all Marketing and PR for the opening of The Bosporus UK in Leicester Square. The restaurant opened on September 24th. The following case study is a breakdown of what services were provided and how they were carried out.

Our Objective

Bosporus is a well known Turkish restaurant group, born in Dubai and our objective was to bring this award winning restaurant chain to the heart of London. The chosen location was in Leicester Square and our main objective was to ensure a successful opening, drawing in fans of the brand as well as introducing Bosporus to a new market, and creating an ongoing marketing campaign to ensure a prolonged success.

Challenges

The Bosporus brand is relatively unknown in the UK so the brand needed to be promoted to a completely different market. The venue needed to be completely transformed inside, which meant reliance on contractors. The area of the restaurant is already heavily populated with casual dining restaurants, which are all fighting over the same clientele.
Due to Covid we had some delays in opening the restaurant which meant promoting our official opening date was tricky. Covid also meant that all construction had to come to a complete stop for a few months, and restrictions meant a change in how the restaurant would be able to operate.
We had no website or social media to build on, so everything was creating bespoke for the London site.

Our Approach

Our team got to work straight away and started building a new website and social media channels to ensure we had digital platforms to push the Bosporus brand message.

We reached out to UK press and journalists to ensure the opening was on their radar and started planning a grand opening (which unfortunately was unable to take place due to Covid restrictions).

We collectively agreed that influencers and celebrities will be essential to grow the reputation of the restaurant, so we highlighted top talent that would fit with the brand’s identity.

What we did 

We created a bespoke website, created and managed the Bosporus London accounts across all social media platforms,  boosted the restaurants reputation with the foodie community via a combination of press releases, social media, media relations and word of mouth marketing. 

We created a massive buzz with Londoners, as well as with people from Dubai and Turkey throughout the pre-opening phase through clever content creation.

Due to Covid, we opened 3 months later than planned. We used this time to really drive the PR and social media campaigns, making sure as many people as possible knew that Bosporus was coming to London. 

We used location targeted marketing on social media, to ensure our content was being seen in London, Dubai and Turkey, and by people with interest in Turkish cuisine. 

We created beautiful images of the food and venue, as well as an experience video, to help aid the marketing campaigns. 

A few days before our official opening day, the government announced that tighter restrictions would be coming into effect on our opening day. To encourage guests to come and dine with us, we offered 50% off food and 25% off for the following week. An extra 5% was given to pre booking to encourage people to book in advance. 

Journalists and influencers were booked in for the first few weeks, all giving the venue exceptional reviews.

We supplied security for the venue as well as interior flowers and a balloon arch for opening. 

The Results

The opening of the Bosporus UK in Leicester Square went as well as we could have hoped for under the restrictions that we had to follow. 

The outside terrace area continues to be busy, and guests are enjoying the food discounts that we put in place.

All influencer and journalist reviews have been incredibly positive, with many more keen to review the venue soon.  

All Covid rules are being followed to the highest levels so that guests can relax and enjoy their experience knowing they are safe.

What's next?

We will continue to invite influencers and journalists to The Bosporus UK, encouraging more media coverage for the venue. 

We will look at partnerships with Emirates and Turkish Airlines to create a bespoke competition prize for guests. 

We will closely monitor the changes in guidelines and adapt our marketing strategy around this.

Key Services Supplied

  • Marketing – Traditional and Digital
  • PR – Press releases/Influencer and Press engagement
  • Content Creation – SEO/Photography/Videography/Blog writing
  • Social Media Management
  • Website development
  • Reporting – Weekly/Monthly
  • Budget Planning
  • Strategic Planning
  • Crisis Management
  • Online Training
  • Event Management
  • Project Management
  • Supplying security
  • Interior and exterior graphics

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