Spreading the Word For The Bothy Butter Launch

The Brief

The Gin Bothy is an award-winning Angus-based food and drinks manufacturer that is growing from strength to strength since it was founded by ‘accidental gin-maker’ Kim Cameron in 2015. We have worked with Gin Bothy as she has expanded her range of products from gin to jam to butter and were recently tasked with providing PR support for her move to an expanded production unit in Forfar. Our PR focus for the Forfar expansion was on delivering external media coverage that ensured Gin Bothy stayed true to its core values and strong commitment to its Angus surroundings.

The Campaign

Gin Bothy owner Kim is passionate about her brand’s humble beginnings in the Angus Glens, and the Gin Bothy visitor experience centre in Glamis is central to any plans for future growth. It was, therefore, critical that our messaging within external media outlined the ambition to expand the brand whilst staying true to the Angus Glens heritage. For the move to Forfar, reaffirming that ongoing commitment to the local area and local suppliers whilst outlining the ambitious plans for growth were central to all our external media output. We broke the campaign into two strands:

• The initial Forfar expansion plans
• The launch of a new Bothy Butter range to coincide with the opening of the Bothy Larder in Forfar

The first external media campaign focused on the business side of the move. The launch of Bothy Butter – which builds on a 45-year-old recipe to keep the centuries-old butter-making tradition alive – developed the human interest side of the story.

The Results

The power of local will always be the main strength of Gin Bothy and for the initial expansion plans PR we secured 18 media hits, including an in-depth interview with Gin Bothy’s core target audience in The Courier. This story allowed Kim to talk in detail about her ambitious expansion plans in an article that was the second-most read article across the entire Courier newsfeed on its day of publication. For the second stage of the PR campaign, the human interest element, the story appeared in print and on broadcast with 10 media hits. Again, the messaging saw the Gin Bothy brand staying true to its’ core local audience. The Bothy Butter story was featured in an Angus Storm Babet – dominated TAY FM morning headline news bulletin and splashed across The Herald and The Courier.