Whitbread Restaurants is set begin using social media to reach consumers, having tasked its retained advertising agency CheethamBell JWT (CBJWT) to handle the online medium.

The remit extension was handed to CBJWT following a competitive pitch which saw the Manchester agency present its long-term digital strategy for each of the company’s brands; Brewer’s Fayre, Table Table, Beefeater and Taybarns, illustrating how a competitive advantage could be created for the company through social media.

The brief will see CBJWT work closely with the four brands to embed social communications and technologies across each of the businesses, and deliver ongoing creative, content, management and measurement.

The brief will be the first major project to be headed up by digital creative director Dom Rodwell who was appointed in January to spearhead the digital growth of the agency.

Rodwell commented: “It’s exciting stuff.  Very social, very local and very mobile. We’re going to take the brands way beyond the confines of their websites, and engage with their customers in some really innovative and compelling ways.
It’s great to be working with a client as forward thinking, and as up for the challenge as we are. Social is all about storytelling - and there’s no one better placed than us to bring exceptional brand ideas to life.”