Prohibition

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the head of digital for a top 50 commercial law firm in the UK. We're a full-service law firm, and I'm responsible for the firm's external channels, including the website, SEO development, paid advertising, social media, and email marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Prohibition?

We needed help with social media marketing. LinkedIn is a potent tool for us. We developed a strategy and needed to create a training guide for our lawyers. We also needed it to be user-friendly and contain snippet video content to do some initial training. We needed to accompany that with a PowerPoint and short videos on how to use LinkedIn and how to use it well. I needed a team that could take that work on for me.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Prohibition has supported us with social media campaigns, including creating graphics and content. The team has also created video content and a PowerPoint presentation for internal use. Prohibition has taken a strategy document we provided and summarized it into a PowerPoint presentation to train our lawyers. The team has also created short three-minute video snippets on how to use LinkedIn, which include a voiceover.

What is the team composition?

We work with Chris, who is the managing director, and three other team members, including account managers and media executives.

How did you come to work with Prohibition?

Our head of PR worked with Prohibition on a project and recommended them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Prohibition in July 2023, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Prohibition's work has been excellent. The team has taken a tremendous amount of work off me, and I couldn't produce the quality they have. The campaign they did has enabled us to increase our exposure on social media channels considerably. The training materials look exceptionally well. Prohibition has put a lot of care and hard work into the project.

How did Prohibition perform from a project management standpoint?

Prohibition has met the deadline and stayed on budget. We communicate via email and video calls. They're great to work with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I'm impressed with Prohibition's ability to work within tight deadlines.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give Prohibition everything and ensure they understand the initial brief. Once they understand the initial brief, their creativity will bring your idea to life.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Communications Manager of Black Sheep Brewery

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Family-run brewery producing a range of iconic Yorkshire beers, sold nationally and internationally.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Prohibition to accomplish?

• Public Relations
• Video project support
• Activation planning and execution

SOLUTION

How did you find Prohibition?

long-term supplier

Why did you select Prohibition over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit

How many teammates from Prohibition were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Prohibition have supported the day-to-day public relations for BSB, highlighting key opportunities with press releases and digital strategies across multiple channels.

They undertook a mass of video work to redevelop Black Sheep and sister brand videos, adapting as necessary to suit different requirements within each business.

They developed multi-channel activities during key campaigns (i.e. Christmas campaign), which worked well alongside internal digital marketing activity. This included press for on/off-trade channels, a new influencer marketing strategy and e-commerce e-alerts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We didn't set specific KPIs, but we're always looking to see strong press uptake that matches the target publications proposed for each release, reaching large readerships. Video work has been well recieved, and is being used across all business functions applicable already. E-alerts and influencer strategies generated income and awareness through our e-commerce channel.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Always appreciate quick and precise comms from the team, always willing to support and they understand what we're looking for even if we're not specific - testament to our working relationship over the last couple of years/teams experience in the industry.

What was your primary form of communication with Prohibition?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They're a bunch of friendly people who feel like a natural extension of the marketing team.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Prohibition could have done differently?

No, it's for us to make sure we're briefing in projects with plenty of time and setting clear targets - we're always safe in the knowledge that Prohibition will deliver what we want in time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing manager at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. The school is 25 years old.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Prohibition?

This academic year we wanted to produce a range of thought leadership articles for the next 25 years. We had another agency working on the project, but we had to let them go because they weren’t performing as we needed.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Prohibition has produced social media image assets and animations for us. Our faculty wrote a series of 20 thought leadership articles, and we needed accompanying images and animations to go with them for social media. They’ve also created seven pillar assets. We initially briefed them and explained we wanted to step away slightly from our brand guidelines to be a bit more interesting since it was a new and exciting project and a big milestone. We told them we wanted to veer towards a specific style of imagery where different images are stitched together.

For the animated video, we’ve provided them with a line of text. The content contractor that we brought in wanted to pick the sentences herself. She took them over to the agency, and they used them to develop the animations for each article. They’ve created all of them with the words from the brief.

Additionally, they’ve produced two launch animations between 1-1.5 minutes. The animations take people on a journey of where we are as a school and where we’re coming from. Over the next few months, we’ll be releasing all of these articles. On the other hand, the individual assets are a mixture of images and animations; there are eight animations, and the rest are images.

We have a specific thought leadership social channel, which we use to promote each article. The main channel is more focused on brand awareness. We’ve done Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Also, we’ve used it internally on our intranet, our external website, and the screens around the building.

What is the team composition?

We mainly deal with the owner. We have a project manager, and three team members are popping in and out. In addition, we have meetings with their graphic designer and creative director, and a few people check in to ensure everything is running smoothly.

How did you come to work with Prohibition?

A few people on our team had been to some webinars they ran during the pandemic lockdown. When this project came to us, another agency was booked for it, but we weren’t happy with their first draft. We remembered Prohibition from the webinars and contacted them. They were happy to help and jumped on it really quickly.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2021, and our relationship is ongoing. Currently, they’ve started working on another project. We chose them because they did well on the first one.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We contacted them knowing that they’re specialists in higher education marketing. We gave them a quick deadline and turnaround time, and they jumped in and produced something extraordinary. They’ve delivered perfectly on everything. The feedback from everyone around the school has been great — they say it’s creative and nice to look at. It’s a great change from the usual corporate stuff we produce.

All in all, we’ve seen an increase in engagement in the posts. Also, we have more followers, and the website's thought leadership section has increased in followers as well.

How did Prohibition perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent. Everything runs on time; we have a spreadsheet to see what they’re working towards. If there are issues, we have a lot of two-way communication. We use email and a Teams channel.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Working with people you get along with is key, and they’re really nice people. The team is creative, and they understand higher education and how to reach its audience, which is vital. Moreover, their work is fantastic. Everyone loves it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re doing a great job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re considering working with them, go for it. It’ll be the best decision you ever make. Also, be open with communication and make sure you set your primary goals. They’ll do everything they can to meet them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a further education college in England called Calderdale College. The department I work in is the commercial side of the fence. We deliver a lot of government-funded and EU-funded skills development and workforce development programs, and my job title is the sector relationship manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Prohibition?

We’re seen locally within our district as just a further education college. We needed to be able to communicate what our full offer is to businesses. This is because we work a lot in other districts and within other local authorities throughout England with businesses, but not a lot within our own area.

We tasked Prohibition with spreading the word in regard to who we are, what we’re all about, and our expertise. A lot of the people I work with all come from the government so we’re very good at policy and strategy. We understand economic regeneration through skills.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We asked Prohibition to come up with a strategy for us for an integrated marketing campaign. We had never done anything like this before so we were being guided by their expertise.

For example, we wanted to set up, what we eventually called, a resilience hub. It’s almost like a repository of support, toolkits, and information for local businesses to be able to dip in and out of by way of establishing us within the district so people didn’t see us as just being about sales and training packages. We wanted to communicate that we are here to help and here to support.

Additionally, the purpose of the resilience hub was to teach us how to best approach an integrated marketing campaign. Prohibition came up with a suite of assets for us including social media ads, strategy, and monthly planners; they came up with everything from a starting standstill point.

Prohibition phased the whole engagement. Their team did an audit as to what they saw when it came to our visibility, social media presence, and what we were. They came back to us after the audit and showed us what they found. Prohibition found that X amount of people were coming to our website but were leaving really quickly. They compared us to our competitors as well as what our competitors were doing. Then their team did phase two which was like a test and learn.

They tested out different methodologies, different ways of communicating, different ways of speaking, different visuals, and different social media platforms. Again, they did a lot of analytics at the end of that stage. Their team came back and presented us with various different methodologies as to what we could go forward with for our actual campaign. Then they launched a campaign for us.

Prohibition ran Google ads and did a lot on all the social media platforms, but not Instagram because we don’t really have an Instagram presence. They produced a video for us as well in addition to infographics and stills. We also did mail campaigns.

We have an in-house marketing team, but they’re very much about student recruitment and apprenticeships, and not necessarily so hot on B2B. Prohibition upskilled us and our marketing team to be able to have a handover and transition period. This helped us to be able to move forward without having to have an external marketing agency do it for us.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Will (Director), who headed it all up, and Ella (B2B Lead & Account Director). Our team also worked with Victoria (Senior Account Director) and a couple of other team members.

How did you come to work with Prohibition?

We were given a pot of money to do this piece of work under another project. It was a government EU-funded program. I put a tender out to commission an external marketing agency and Prohibition bid into that. What really stuck out for us was their professionalism, honesty, and the way they communicated what their skill set was. As part of the procurement exercise, I asked each of the people who were tendering to come up with a solution for us and the shortlist of people had to make a pitch.

From the outset, Prohibition completely and totally got what our problem was and what the potential range of solutions could be for us. With anything, people buy people, and they were lovely people. They were warm, genuine, and down to earth. A couple of the other marketing agencies that pitched weren’t the right fit for us, but Prohibition was engaging.

How much have you invested in them?

It was roughly £89,000 (approximately $123,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in July 2020 and was supposed to finish in December 2020, but we extended it for an additional month because we enjoyed working with them and what they were doing. Prohibition is still engaged with us even though the contract has run out. They’re still helping us out now on little bits and bats.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Prohibition took a baseline in the audit as to how many people were visiting our website; for example, how many people were viewing and engaging with any social media that we ran. Then, their team looked at what those figures were at the end of December 2020 and January 2021, and it was blinding. It was exponentially huge. We got so many hits it was ridiculous, as did the different social media platforms.

They were generating a heck of a lot of hits to our website. The number of hits was phenomenal and well above industry standards, but they weren’t converting. We needed to understand why they weren’t converting. Ella said she didn’t feel like they had done their job properly. They had hit all of the targets but needed people to convert. They stayed on for another month while they tried to unpick it all for us by looking at lots of different analytics and things like that.

I shared one video they produced for us on my LinkedIn and within the space of a day, I had something like 400 views. That was me cobbling together my own little post, whereas before I’d get about two people looking at my content. When Prohibition was doing it through the company's LinkedIn and Facebook profiles, they discovered we were getting more hits via Facebook.

That’s probably reflective of the fact that a lot of the business landscape in Calderdale and Yorkshire is based predominantly on small companies, with 1–9 employees. Obviously, that demographic of a company is predominantly still using Facebook as a means of engaging and promoting their business as opposed to using things like LinkedIn which we found quite interesting as well.

What I really like about Prohibition is that they took the time to understand who we are. Prohibition almost became part of the team, and we saw them as an extension of our team whilst. They’re supportive and really bought into what we are trying to do and who we are.

How did Prohibition perform from a project management standpoint?

During our contracted time, we had fortnightly catchups, and they produced a monthly planner for us which was always updated. Prohibition uploaded all of the drafts which they sent us a link. We then went on to look at all the social aspects and videos to give our approval, and ask if they could tweak things so it didn’t overwhelm all of our inboxes.

Prohibition used that a lot as well as Teams, and they were very good and on it. If we emailed them, they emailed back straight away and were great at communicating. If they couldn’t come back with an answer right then, they’d get back to us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

As a team, they gel. They work brilliantly together and have a heck of a lot of fun together. They like each other and that absolutely shines through. That’s exactly what we’d want and what we need. It feels like there wasn’t any hierarchy within their structure and team. Will was on the calls and was managing the project but we could tell with the interactions between them that it wasn’t hierarchical. What really impressed me more than anything is them as people, a team, and as a company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not from my perspective. We are really happy, and my director was really happy with them too. Prohibition produced their final report as well which was exceedingly helpful and gave us all of the stats and analytics. They put into context what is the industry standard and what’s not, and where we fit within all of that. It was extremely helpful.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust them. They know what they’re doing. Take them on board as well because they’ll fly. Different people have different ways of working. Be open and honest because we really liked that they were like part of our team. Other businesses may not like that and may want them more at arm's length. Trust them because they’re really good. I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think that. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of partnerships for Yorkshire Water. We’re a water utility company that supplies water to 5 million customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Prohibition?

We needed an innovative and exciting way to conduct upcoming presentations for an external party. We wanted to bring our business to life in a warm, colorful way.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Prohibition pulled together a team that listened to our ideas. Their team not only facilitated discussions but also built on our ideas. They then reflected on the ideas and brought back a baseline for us to review. Their team produced a storyboard that allows us to conceptualize our ideas and bring them to life in a couple of short films.

What is the team composition?

We had a primary contact and a backup contact. We also met some of their other team members.

How did you come to work with Prohibition?

A different part of our business recommended them. We met and decided to work together on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between March – June 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We received positive feedback internally for the quality of the films and how they brought our ideas to life. We asked people who weren't involved in the project to watch our presentation rehearsals and critique them. One of those people said the films were world-class and asked to work with Prohibition on a future project.

How did Prohibition perform from a project management standpoint?

We had formal and informal meetings regularly. They were very clear on what they required from us, such as feedback, as well as on timelines and cost estimates. Prohibition did well with governance.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We felt supported throughout the process. It was clear what they needed from us and what we expected from them.

They had technical knowledge and skills. Their team was professional, friendly, and listened to us.

They weren’t afraid to challenge us and add different ideas. Prohibition provided excellent customer service, and we connected well with them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The best way to approach any project is to be proactive and plan as thoroughly as possible.