Helping a Wales based PR and marketing agency break into the UK market with a lead magnet that generates 45+ responses every week
Harper turned a saturated paid ads pitch into a high converting PR offer, opening doors with some of the UK's most recognisable venues and brands.
The Challenge
WCS Agency is Cardiff’s leading social first marketing and PR agency, trusted by some of Wales’ most recognisable brands from Cardiff City FC and Wales Millennium Centre to The Ivy, Holland & Barrett and Sweaty Betty.
With a proven track record delivering 895 pieces of media coverage for Wales Millennium Centre and 170m+ opportunities to see for Wrecsam 2029, WCS had the credentials to compete on a national scale.
The plan was clear: break out of Wales and win clients across the UK. But the initial outreach strategy, which led with paid social and performance marketing, put WCS in a crowded space where standing out wasn’t easy.
The Approach
Harper identified that WCS’s real differentiator wasn’t their paid ads capability, it was their PR expertise and media relationships. Together, we pivoted the campaign and built a new offer from the ground up. Here’s how we did it:
- Repositioning around PR: The outreach shifted from a generic performance marketing pitch to a specialist PR and media proposition, a far stronger fit for WCS’s actual strengths and track record.
- Building a compelling lead magnet: Rather than sending a cold pitch, every message offered prospects a free, bespoke PR opportunity map, a personalised document outlining story angles, media partnership ideas and specific PR approaches tailored to their business. High value, zero obligation, easy to say yes to.
- Targeting the right audience: Outreach focused on Marketing Directors, CMOs, Heads of Marketing and senior decision makers at hospitality and entertainment businesses across England and Scotland, organisations with £3M+ turnover actively looking to raise their profile.
- Running dual channel outreach: Personalised email and LinkedIn sequences worked in tandem, with WCS’s own results front and centre, giving prospects an immediate, credible reason to engage.
The Solution
Harper designed a campaign built around a single, irresistible question: what if we showed you exactly how we’d get your brand in the press? The free PR opportunity map replaced the traditional cold pitch with something genuinely useful for prospects, and it worked. Decision makers who might have ignored a generic agency email were happy to say yes to something personalised and free.
Messaging led with WCS’s strongest proof points (895 pieces of coverage, ITV and BBC features, a client roster including The Ivy and Holland & Barrett), establishing credibility before any ask was made. Harper handled all prospecting, list building and outreach execution, allowing the WCS team to focus on delivering the opportunity maps and converting warm conversations.
Project Impact
The pivot to PR transformed WCS’s outreach performance. The campaign now generates over 45 interested responses every week, a consistent, scalable pipeline of UK hospitality and entertainment brands actively engaging with WCS’s offer.
Decision makers responded from organisations such as Royal Albert Hall, Baller League, Hello! Magazine, BoxKitchen and Sunderland AFC, and more.
By identifying WCS’s real competitive edge and building an offer around it, Harper helped transform a stalling outreach campaign into one of the most consistently performing pipelines, putting a Cardiff agency in rooms with some of the UK’s biggest entertainment and hospitality brands.
