Cove Creamery churn small-batch ice cream from a dairy five miles inland and sell it from a kiosk on the seafront and a growing list of delis. They had a loyal summer crowd and a feed that went silent every October. We took on the channels year-round, built a content calendar that gave people a reason to care about ice cream in January, and brought in local creators to make the kiosk a destination rather than a passing treat.
Engagement rate on Instagram
9.8% average
Winter kiosk footfall
+38% year on year
Views on TikTok
2.3M in 5 months
New stockists enquiring
27 delis
Cove wanted to stop being a seasonal business on social. The kiosk is busy from May to September and the feed reflected that, with a burst of sunny photos followed by six months of nothing. The brief was to keep the audience warm through the winter, support the move into wholesale and make the brand feel like a Sussex institution rather than a nice place to queue.
Harriet built a calendar around the flavour-development process, which happens to be at its most interesting in the off-season. We filmed test batches, failed experiments and the farmer who supplies the milk, and ran a monthly vote where followers picked the next limited flavour. For the summer we recruited a dozen Brighton creators on a simple deal: free scoops for a year in exchange for honest content.
The behind-the-scenes series gave the account a personality people wanted to follow regardless of the weather, and the flavour vote became a small local event. TikTok views climbed past two million in five months, winter footfall at the kiosk rose by more than a third and the deli enquiries came in faster than the dairy could fulfil them. We’ve since helped them launch a modest paid campaign for the wholesale side.
We thought nobody would care about ice cream in the dark months. Turns out they care about the people making it. Lido found the story we didn’t know we had and told it without a hint of cringe.
- Jamie Penrose, Owner, Cove Creamery
Run a food business that lives and dies by the seasons? We can help you stay in people’s heads all year round. Say hello at hello@lido.example and we’ll bring the ideas.
