Submitted by Intandem Communications

Launching Harrogate's newest hotspot, Amber's Restaurant

Intandem Communications ran a PR, events, influencer and social launch for Cedar Court's Amber's Restaurant in Harrogate, reporting 49 pieces of PR coverage.

360VIP guests attending across events
4features in regional lifestyle media
49pieces of PR coverage
260pieces of influencer and media content

Case in 60 seconds

Cedar Court Hotel Group had invested over £500k in a new restaurant at its flagship Harrogate hotel, and the page frames the task as repositioning an existing hotel dining offer rather than opening an unknown site.

The campaign appears to turn on the reading that hotel restaurants are treated as an amenity for guests, so Amber's needed standing as a destination in its own right before Yorkshire residents would book it.

A single joined-up launch strategy across PR, influencer, social media and events, timed to the official opening, so that media interest and first-hand attendance built the restaurant's reputation together rather than in separate pushes.

Intandem issued a series of press releases to regional, lifestyle, business and hospitality media ahead of opening, then ran and co-ordinated a series of exclusive VIP events for a curated guest list of over 300 press, influencers and local businesses, who saw the new menu and interiors and produced content on their own social platforms.

Intandem reports 49 pieces of PR coverage across regional, industry and hospitality media, 4 features in regional lifestyle media including Yorkshire Life, Yorkshire Living, Femme Magazine and The Yorkshire Post, 260 pieces of influencer and media content, and 360 exclusive VIP guests attending across 4 events.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

Press, influencers and local businesses on the invitation list, and beyond them hotel guests and Yorkshire residents described as the intended diners.
Hotel restaurants read as a facility for people already staying, which works against a local audience choosing one for its own sake, so the work had to separate Amber's from Cedar Court Harrogate while keeping the association visible.
A £500k investment in interiors and menu is only persuasive to people who see it, so the launch had to move a physical refurbishment into regional media and social feeds before opening night.
Amber's was positioned as an exclusive and desirable restaurant offering an elevated dining experience to hotel guests and Yorkshire residents alike, according to the agency's own account of the outcome.

Creative & Execution System

Partners

  • Intandem Communications (lead_agency)

Participation mechanic

  • Invited VIP guests attended launch events for a first look at the menu and interiors and posted their own content about the visit across their social platforms.

Creator role

  • 360 exclusive VIP guests attending across 4 events
  • over 300 members of the press, influencers and local businesses

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult type
VIP guests attending across events360 exclusive VIP guests attending across 4 eventsperformance
features in regional lifestyle media4 features in regional lifestyle media including Yorkshire Life, Yorkshire Living, Femme Magazine and The Yorkshire Post.performance
pieces of PR coverage49 pieces of PR coverage across regional, industry & hospitality mediaperformance
pieces of influencer and media content260 pieces of influencer and media content driving traffic to social media and websitetraffic

Why Intandem Communications's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Inviting press and creators to the same curated events appears to serve two outputs from one cost, because the journalists who attended wrote the features while the influencers who attended produced the social content.

  2. 2

    Establishing a hotel restaurant as a separate entity while keeping the link to the parent hotel reads as the mechanism behind the stated sleeper diner ratio gain, since local diners book a restaurant rather than a hotel.

  3. 3

    Splitting a guest list of 360 across four events rather than one opening night suggests the aim was repeated content moments and manageable first impressions rather than a single peak of attention.

Related Case studies