Food Social is a newly launched social media agency and a sister agency to Food PR.
The agency officially launched this week with a focus on servicing food and hospitality brand’s online and social media needs. Food Social offers end-to-end campaign management from strategy planning, auditing and optimisation to content creation and editing. Food Social works with some of Ireland’s top content creators, located throughout the country, to ensure a consistent stream of high-quality content for their clients.
Food PR was established in 2010 when Managing Director, Olivia Collins, pursued her love of Irish food and redirected her PR agency, previously Those Two Girls PR, as one firmly focused on promoting Irish food.
As the agency developed, so too did the world of communications, Olivia said “We were creating wonderful PR campaigns and clients simply did not know how to translate them into content for online use. So naturally we stepped in and offered social media as an add-on service. We were one of the first PR agencies in the country to offer social media services alongside our PR services.”
The expansion of services served them well during the pandemic when there was a sudden halt on most PR campaigns. “People still needed to communicate with the public, whether it was advising of reduced opening hours, new takeaway services or safety measures”. After the pandemic social media services were being used by most Food PR clients, Olivia says, “The work that was being created became really creative, dynamic and impactful. It was destined to grow and it was simply a matter of finding the right team to do that with.”
Sarah Berney joined Food PR on a freelance basis initially to service the social media needs of their PR clients, as the role grew so too did the services. Sarah is now the Head of Social Media at the new agency Food Social which has a dedicated in-house team, a pool of content creators and its own distinct brand. Sarah is influential in the world of food in her own right and is the person behind The Hungry Nugget, a food-focused Instagram account with over 16k followers. Sarah said, “I’m incredibly passionate about the Irish food industry, and playing a role in the growth and success of diverse nationwide brands such as Griolladh, Esquires and Zambrero, fine dining restaurants and hotels across Ireland is so fulfilling. Working with such a variety of brands in this space and marketing to diverse target audiences means that creating content that is authentic to the brand is key. At Food Social, we take time to understand and to develop the brand’s personality and tone of voice — this is core to the success of each campaign.”
Olivia continued, “It’s a very exciting time for the agency and Food Social is at the forefront of online communications, not just for food businesses but also for hotels, restaurants and hospitality in general. We have developed some fantastic partnerships and collaborations through the network we have developed over the years and matched with fresh creativity our clients are seeing real results in terms of visibility and brand growth. We genuinely care about the success of each client and ensure that the content we create directly correlates to and works towards the overarching business goals for each brand we work with.”
See www.foodsocial.ie for more information. Keep up with the latest news by following Food Social on social at @foodsocialireland and online here: www. foodsocial.ie
About Olivia Collins
An accomplished senior PR and Communications Director with over 20 years of experience in providing creative and effective PR strategies and leadership. Olivia Collins is the Managing Director of Food PR and and sister agency Food Social. Olivia provides online and offline marketing and PR services to restaurants and food producers across Ireland. Olivia founded the successful award-winning consumer PR agency Those Two Girls PR for over 10 years before dedicating her agency to food.
Food PR and Food Social works with Michelin-starred restaurants, multi-award winning venues, high-profile chefs and quality artisan producers from all over Ireland developing online strategies, PR campaigns and managing marketing budgets. Olivia is also the communications manager for Food On The Edge an international food symposium, and has held roles as a communications mentor to Failte Ireland, a mentor and trainer at BIM and an external examiner at GMIT. Olivia was awarded the 2019 Business Woman of the Year by Network Galway. In 2023 she won Acquisitions International Business Woman of The Year Hospitality Marketing Director 2023 (UK and ROI)