YummyPets, the leading social network for pets, has appointed Firefly to handle its UK launch.

Already extremely popular in France, with over 150,000 French speaking members, 50,000 in the rest of the world and 600 brands and organisations interacting on the site, Firefly was tasked to introduce the site to passionate British pet owners.

Firefly developed a two-phased launch plan aimed to introduce the site in the UK, build awareness and drive sign-ups to the social network.

Firefly is carrying out all media outreach and communications during the launch period, which included a radio day promoting the YummyPets brand with celebrity backing from high profile reality TV stars – Amy Childs and Gabriella Ellis, in a TOWIE vs. Made in Chelsea stand-off.

YummyPets has been developed exclusively for those who have a love of animals, providing them with a platform that is fun and easy to interact with others on. It also gives users access to a range of useful and targeted pet services. These services include classified pet ads, missing pet notices, vet appointment reminders and memorial pages for loved and lost pets.

Mathieu Chollon, YummyPets co-founder said, “After our success in France, we highlighted the UK as being the next major market to kick-off international roll-out. We selected Firefly following a competitive pitch, because they have the knowledge, expertise and contacts we needed to bring YummyPets to the UK.

Matthieu Glayrouse, YummyPets co-founder said, “We’re hoping to see ourselves become the number one social network for pets in Britain and we’re confident Firefly can help us to achieve this.”

YummyPets launched in the UK in May and has already seen an explosive growth in numbers since being featured in publications such as Wired, Stylist, Huffington Post, The Independent, The Drum, Reveal.co.uk, Pet Gazette and Pocket-Lint.

In the last month, Firefly has launched an entirely new share-buying platform, InvestingZone; and France’s number one social network for pets (social petwork), Yummypets into the UK.

Two very different brand propositions!  But what united the client briefs, is the importance of PR in the brand launch stage.  In each case, effective public relations was identified as crucial in both driving awareness and credibility, and indeed business results in the form of sign-ups. The Firefly team has been working on the launch campaigns throughout the last few months; with, in each case, PR results timed to hit in the last two weeks. Here’s a little more about what we did…

InvestingZone is a brand new internet platform, to open up investment opportunities in unlisted companies.  The brand is right at the front of the evolving investment market, and wants to appeal to the next generation of investors.

The Firefly team was appointed to handle InvestingZone’s UK launch and ongoing PR communications programme, by Co-Founder Jean Miller – who came to the team for an integrated communications platform.

For the soft launch of InvestingZone, the Firefly team has set-up and created the content calendar for InvestingZone’s Twitter feed.  We have also crafted and led digital marketing campaigns with The Motley Fool and FT Investors Chronicle.

This week, PR coverage went live.  The Firefly team secured a launch exclusive in The Telegraph, followed up by Real Business; both carefully targeted for the quantity and quality of their readers.  On Monday, the team will rack up its next coverage hit; with an international broadcast interview briefed, booked and ready to roll…

The Yummypets team had a hard act to follow: Firefly was briefed to launch Yummypets into the UK, following phenomenal success in France – its home market…  Yummypets is only a year old (or seven in cat/dog years) in France; and currently has over 150,000 members, with 500 new pets joining every day and more than 600 brands and organisations interacting on the site. Yummypets founders Matt and Mat came to Firefly, looking for an agency that could help them globalise their social petwork concept.

Firefly announced the launch on Wired.co.uk on Thursday 23^rd May, with a launch exclusive from Editor and cat-lover, Nate Lanxon.  Blanket coverage appeared the following day, in heavy-hitting consumer publications including Stylist and Huffington Post.  After the weekend, the print exclusive broke in targeted national publication The Independent, along with accompanying online coverage.

Firefly is results-driven, and focussed not only on coverage results – but on tangible results to our client’s business.  Our Yummypets clients have reported increased site traffic and increased pet sign-up, on each day of phase I of the launch.

With phase II of the launch kicking in, in the middle of June, Firefly continues to build a nation of pet-lovers on a site that is tried-and-tested and loved by French pet-lovers.

You can find Fiona on Twitter and LinkedIn; her cat is on Yummypets.