Absolute Agency Taking Carrs beyond Bolton with PR Campaigns

Carrs Pasties are a Bolton bakery with BIG ambitions. Absolute Agency began working with them in September 2020 on a remit that as well as PR, included brand, campaign, and digital. A fully integrated approach.

Established in 1938 and now in the hands of the third generation of the family, it’s a well-known and well-loved brand in Bolton.

Absolute Agency’s task from a PR perspective was to tell the Carrs Pasties story to relevant press titles beyond its Bolton borders, as it eyed national expansion via growth in trade partners and nationwide delivery of its frozen products.

The Strategy

There was a great story to tell – a family business with a strong heritage, quality products, and owners with personality and passion for its products, people and community, as well as bucket loads of ambition.

It was these elements that Absolute Agency focused on for their media outreach strategy, supported by timely creative video content generation.

Targeting wider North West publications – Carrs Pasties immediate target area for growing its trade partners – as well as grocery trade press and national press, they embarked on a program of intensive media relations to raise the profile of Carrs Pasties.

The Result

In just six months, Absolute Agency achieved 33 pieces of press coverage, with a circulation of 790,000, coverage was viewed 834,000 times and resulted in 1.25k social shares.

Print press coverage had a media value of 42.1k.

Impressive results for a local bakery.

The Highlights

• A full-page interview with the Carr brothers in the Metro newspaper – featuring four brand mentions as well as key messages throughout including its stores, trade partners and launch of the nationwide delivery service. And a huge picture of its famous pasties in all their glory!
• Established a relationship with trade title British Baker (part of The Grocer) achieving five pieces of coverage, which included an interview with the Carrs brothers for the titles ‘Born & Bread’ feature, resulting in another full page of press coverage.
• Regional and trade coverage for Carrs Pasties Halloween activity – a spoof on horror classic, Poltergeist devised and delivered by Absolute’s creative team.
• This was also supported with digital spend across social channels and resulted in an uplift of 11% in retail sales and an 81% uplift in doorstep delivery sales week on week.

The future is bright for the Carrs Pasties brand and they are just getting started. Keep your eyes peeled for future activity…

About Absolute Agency

Absolute Agency is an integrated creative and digital agency headquartered in Bolton, just outside Manchester. They have been delivering their craft for over 21 years and provide a fully integrated service covering brand, strategy, development, performance and communication. Their purpose is to deliver exceptional growth for their clients through building their brand via strategy, creativity, innovation, and performance.

Their expert team is made up of problem solvers, creatives, developers, strategists, project managers, photographers, researchers, marketers and communicators, and Absolute Agency racing drivers, runners, hiking enthusiasts, mountain bikers, ceramic crafters, gamers, and football fanatics. But most of all, passionate about the work they deliver and the clients they work for.