Yorkshire agency Jaywing lands deal with international fashion brand

PrettyLittleThing, part of the Boohoo group and headquartered in Manchester, has signed on with Jaywing to deliver greater positive brand sentiment for its reputation.

Jaywing PR will offer consultancy on a strategic level to maximise media relations opportunities and support idea generation. The agency will also be monitoring the retailer’s brand health through its extensive suite of tools, reporting on a monthly basis to identify and react to changes and help maximise content opportunities across all digital platforms

Jaywing, which is headquartered in Leeds and has a large presence in Sheffield, landed the deal with PrettyLittleThing via a pre-existing relationship between it and its sister agency, Epiphany, which dates back to 2015.

Nicki Capstick, head of marketing at PrettyLittleThing, said: “We are excited to work with Jaywing PR and use their expertise to fuel our public relations strategy.

“Thanks to our relationship with Epiphany, we feel reassured that the team is already immersed in our brand and fully understands our marketing ambitions, and we look forward to replicating similar success with this new partnership.”

PrettyLittleThing was founded in 2012 and was recently named one of the world’s top three fastest-growing fashion brands.

Initially targeted at women aged between 14-24, it won the backing of celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, Rita Ora and Jessie J.

It was acquired by the Boohoo group in 2016.

Cheryl Cox, PR & Earned Media Group account director at Jaywing, said that the deal came about thanks to the successful relationship with Epiphany and the wider agency’s ability to deal with some of the issues impacting upon the online fashion industry.

She told The Yorkshire Post: “As is the case for every big fashion brand there is going to be on occasion negative coverage.

“This is true for all of their competitors and it can, as a result, have an impact on traffic. So they were looking for advice.

“PLT understand that is just the nature of the beast. When you are selling hundreds of thousands of things you are going to get complaints.

“We were really fortunate that we had the capability to address what was impacting on them by looking at addressing that from within.

“Some of the smaller things then can manage themselves through social.

“We were able to focus on the some of the amazing things they were doing in house but were not necessarily talking about.

“They have a great recycled collection that forms part of their sustainability policy.

“As a business they choose models that come from all shapes and sizes.”

Epiphany became part of Jaywing in 2014 when it was acquired in an £18m deal.

“We are really fortunate that we have Epiphany and that we had that Epiphany relationship,” said Ms Cox.

“Also, because of the wealth of tools that we have as part of being such a big group we had other of advantages that took us above other PR agencies.”

Kate Dixon, managing director of Jaywing PR, said: “It’s great to work with brands who share the same forward-thinking approach as we do.

“Our consultancy and media relations support will help PrettyLittleThing drive positive brand sentiment with their audience and we’re excited to work together to achieve fantastic results.”