Elevating the social media performance of M&B pubs
Discover how tailored social media strategies helped Mitchells & Butlers pubs division achieve 19.8M reach, 80% follower growth, and a thriving community feel across all social platforms!
Challenge
To optimise the social media performance of Ember Inns, O’Neill’s, and Sizzling pubs. M&B sought to engage diverse audiences, enhance brand visibility, and improve content strategy across platforms. With differing audience preferences, the goal was to balance authenticity, trend alignment, and audience engagement to drive impactful results.
Solution
We crafted tailored strategies for each brand, combining always-on Business As Usual (BAU) content with Hero Campaign spikes to maximise engagement and impact. Our mission was clear: Create FOMO (fear of missing out).
For Ember Inns we leaned into local pub nostalgia, O’Neill’s spotlighted vibrant entertainment and dining experiences, and Sizzling championed family-focused moments. BAU content focused on authenticity, embracing user-generated style with captivating food visuals, relatable lifestyle moments, and trending themes to maintain consistent engagement.
Hero campaigns delivered high-impact spikes, aligning with cultural and seasonal milestones to captivate audiences and boost visibility. Seasonal events, like summer beer garden features or St Patricks Day, provided standout opportunities to excite and engage.
Audience insights drove every decision, from optimal posting schedules to content preferences, ensuring maximum relevance and resonance. Influencer partnerships brought these strategies to life, delivering user-centred narratives that felt real and relatable while expanding reach and driving deeper connections.
This dual approach seamlessly blended steady, engaging content with moments of high-energy impact, creating a strategy that resonated across platforms and audiences.
Impact
Across ten months we successfully delivered the following:
- Reach: 19.8M total across all platforms (Sizzling highest at 12.8M).
- Follower Growth: +80% across Sizzling, +7.42% (O'Neill's), +10.13% (Ember).
- Engagements: 576,884 (Ember), 316,311 (O'Neill's), 238,443 (Sizzling).
- Brand Messaging Success: Ember Inns successfully engaged audiences, amplifying its ‘local pub’ messaging to deepen connections.
- TikTok Milestone: Launched O’Neill’s first TikTok channel, growing its 406+ followers in just nine months.
- Community Building: Strengthened Sizzling’s community feel, particularly among families, fostering a loyal and engaged audience.
- Influencer Impact: Engaged 53 influencers across all brands, driving authentic, user-focused narratives and expanded reach.
Leopard have been a fantastic support in achieving growth in reach and engagement levels across the board in our social media channels. They took great pride and effort in understanding our brands, what they stood for and our audiences. Their dynamic team is always up for the challenge and ready to think outside the box to develop how we bring our brands to life. Alongside day-to-day social management, Leopard have supported us with photoshoots, influencer showcase days, and bigger hero campaigns. We’ve seen brilliant content and results delivered from these activations, that have really supported us with elevating our social channels even further.Marketing Manager for Pubs Brands at Mitchells & Butlers