Drinks PR Agency

Drinks PR agency for brands that want listings and sales

Prohibition is a drinks PR agency in Leeds working with beer, spirits, mixer, soft drink and energy brands across the UK. We win the trade coverage that gets you listed and the consumer coverage that sells. Black Sheep Brewery had its best online Christmas ever, up £21K on the year before.

Talk to us about your drinks brand

Recent drinks results: 137 trade press pieces for Franklin & Sons. A national retail listing for Drip, Big Zuu’s canned water. Gold at the CIPR awards 2022 for Fentimans.

Drinks brands we work with

What results can drinks PR deliver for your brand?

Drinks PR should move three things: listings, sales and how often people talk about you. Coverage is only useful when it does one of those, so every Prohibition campaign is planned backwards from the commercial number.

At Christmas 2023, Black Sheep Brewery wanted more online sales of its gift range. We pitched and sampled the advent calendar, gift packs and Blitzen ale to gift guide editors, and chased the titles that carry buy links. The result was 60 pieces of coverage, 90% of them linked, 548 tracked referrals, traffic to the gifting range up 556% and online festive sales up £21K year on year.

When Black Sheep launched Respire, a carbon neutral cask ale, the budget was small. We opened a one-beer pop-up pub under Ribblehead Viaduct on Earth Day and filmed it. Respire sold 42% more than the beer it replaced, and 75% of the coverage reached drinkers who did not usually choose cask.

How trade PR wins you bar and retail listings

Buyers and bar operators read the trade press before they meet you. If your brand keeps turning up in the titles they trust, the first meeting starts warmer and the listing conversation is shorter.

For Franklin & Sons, Prohibition runs an always-on trade press office: product news, expert comment and proactive stories for the on-trade. That produced 137 pieces of coverage with 2M circulation, 80% of it in gold-tier titles, and helped the brand secure new bar listings.

Making bartenders compete for your brand

The Franklin & Sons Paloma Showdown ran bar battles in Manchester and London, with the winning team flown to Mexico. It earned coverage in six tier-one trade titles and 550K views of the event film.

For Drip, a canned water brand fronted by Big Zuu, the goal was retail. Sport partnerships with Matchroom Boxing and Tottenham Hotspur Women, creator content and business press, including the FT, built 35 pieces of coverage and one national retail listing.

“Drinks buyers read the trade press before they read your pitch. Get the trade story right and the listings follow.”

Chris Norton, Founder and Managing Director, Prohibition

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Reaching younger drinkers inside the alcohol rules

Alcohol brands cannot market the way soft drinks do. The Portman Group’s Code of Practice and the ASA’s CAP code control who you target, what you imply and who can appear in your content. Influencers promoting alcohol must be over 25 and look it, and their audience must be mostly over 18.

Prohibition builds those checks into every alcohol brief before an idea reaches you. That keeps younger drinkers in reach without risking a complaint.

All Shook Up wanted Gen Z and younger millennials to notice its rebranded canned cocktails. Three influencers each brought their best friend to a weekend at BST Hyde Park. The 26 pieces of content reached 1.3M people and sent 400 clicks to the shop.

For Black Sheep’s Drink Cask Beer platform, we fought the idea that cask is for older drinkers. A cask beer rap by Jester Jacobs and “Black Sheep Does Mean Tweets” reached 11M people and quadrupled brand mentions year on year.

Drinks brands Prohibition has worked with

Our drinks work covers beer, mixers, canned cocktails, water, energy drinks and gin. Clients include Black Sheep Brewery, Franklin & Sons, Fentimans, All Shook Up, Drip, C4 Energy and Bloom London Dry Gin.

Fentimans used us for B2B lead generation with hospitality buyers. A gated market trends report, short videos and LinkedIn retargeting delivered 33K video views and won Gold at the CIPR awards in 2022. For C4 Energy, a one-day takeover at WIT House London produced 5M impressions and more than 25K engagements.

We also work on food PR and pub brands, which helps when a drinks story needs a food or hospitality partner. Mr Porky’s World Cup research into pork scratchings and beer earned 202 pieces of coverage, 15 of them broadcast.

How much does a drinks PR agency cost?

We work on a monthly retainer for one brand, agreed around your goals, or a fixed fee for a launch or campaign. We give you a written quote after a first call.

The price rises with the number of brands, how many markets you need, and whether you add influencer campaigns, events, social media or video. Launches and one-off campaigns can be quoted as projects.

How long before drinks PR shows results?

Trade coverage usually starts within the first month, because trade titles run product news quickly. Consumer coverage takes longer, as features and gift guides are planned weeks or months ahead. Christmas gift guides, for example, are pitched in the summer.

Give any drinks PR programme at least three months before you judge it against sales and listings.

“We’re always safe in the knowledge that Prohibition will deliver what we want in time.”

David Sharples, Communications Manager, Black Sheep Brewery (Clutch review, January 2025)

Is Prohibition the right drinks agency for you?

Prohibition suits drinks brands with UK ambitions that want PR tied to listings and sales. We work best with marketing teams who will share sales data, because that is how we prove what worked.

We are not the right agency for very small budgets. If you only need occasional press releases, a freelance specialist or a short project will give you better value than a retainer.


Food and Drink Public Relations Services

Case Study: Black Sheep Brewery Drinks PR Campaign

Black Sheep wanted more online sales of its hero Christmas gifts. We placed the advent calendar, gift packs and Blitzen ale in national, regional and lifestyle gift guides that carry buy links.

  • 60 pieces of coverage, 90% with a link
  • 548 tracked referrals to the gifting page
  • Traffic to the gifting range up 556% year on year
  • Online festive sales up £21K year on year

Read the Black Sheep Christmas case study

Our Latest Work

All Shook Up: bringing a canned cocktail rebrand to life

Black Sheep Brewery: repositioning cask ale for a new generation

Cartwright & Butler: wrapping up Christmas to drive festive sales

Sector PR:

Questions drinks brands often ask us

Is drinks PR different from food PR?

Yes, mainly because of the alcohol rules and the on-trade. Drinks PR has to reach bar operators and buyers as well as consumers, and alcohol work must follow the Portman Group and CAP codes.

Do I need a London drinks PR agency?

No. Prohibition is based in Leeds and works with drinks brands across the UK, with media contacts in London trade and national titles. Several of our campaigns, including the Franklin & Sons Paloma Showdown, ran in London and Manchester.

Which drinks awards are worth entering?

It depends on your category. Taste awards such as the IWSC, the International Spirits Challenge and Great Taste give you a credible story for retailers. We can tell you which are worth the entry fee for your brand.

How do you measure drinks PR?

We measure against the commercial goal agreed at the start. That might be tracked referrals and online sales, new listings, trade share of voice or brand mentions. Coverage counts are reported alongside, as supporting evidence.

Talk to Prohibition about your drinks brand

Tell us about your brand, where you want it stocked and what you have tried so far. We will give you an honest view of what PR can do for it.

Talk to us about your drinks brand