The Challenge:

Family-run Craigies Farm, based just outside of Edinburgh, is one of Scotland’s leading farm shops and represents the best in modern Scottish farming. It comprises of a farm shop and deli where visitors can pick their own produce, as well as an online shop.

With increasing competition from supermarket chains with big budgets, Craigies needed to raise awareness of its unique offering and become famous for food, fun and sustainable farming, all the while increasing footfall to the farm throughout the year and generating more spend through its online shop.

The Solution:

With no marketing or sales strategy in place, Represent conducted extensive research into the market, the farm’s ideal buying persona and purchasing behaviour before developing an integrated comms campaign focusing on:

• A new website to solidify the brand and streamline the online customer experience
• A PR campaign to raise awareness of the Craigies offering and build trust in the brand
• An influencer programme to promote Craigies as the go to destination for food, fun and to learn about sustainable farming
• An SEO and content campaign to increase traffic to website and drive online sales
• A social media campaign focused on the beautiful surroundings, produce and the people behind Craigies to build up a loyal following
• An email marketing campaign to share Craigies news and stimulate sales of PYO tickets and online sales

A specific Covid-19 campaign to raise awareness of the online shop and encourage people to buy and support local businesses throughout the pandemic

The Impact:

• A four-fold increase in traffic to site
• Over 250 media hits including coverage in BBC News, The Telegraph, Daily Mirror, Visit Scotland, The Herald, and Scottish Farmer
• An increase in monthly online shop sales from 300 to 2000 at peak period
• Significant growth across social media, with increases in followers of 60% on Instagram and 20% on Facebook

“Represent really took the time to understand our brand and our objectives and has delivered a marketing campaign that has solidified the Craigies name, enhanced our reputation and ultimately increased both footfall to the farm and sales of our online shop. They are fantastic to work with and I look forward to continuing our work together.”

– John Sinclair, founder and owner of Craigies Farm, Deli & Cafe and Little Farmers