The Brief

With the Revival collection stocked by Urban Outfitters and gaining momentum among a younger, style-led audience, Bench wanted to reconnect with its Manchester roots while establishing the brand within contemporary youth culture.

Our brief was to create awareness of the collection, reach Manchester’s student and creative communities, secure relevant media coverage and bring the brand directly to its audience through an event that felt culturally credible.

Rather than approaching the campaign as a conventional fashion launch, we developed Bench Open House: a community-led sample sale and launch party combining fashion, music, tattoos and content across all three floors of Manchester Social.

What We Did

Purple Riot delivered the integrated PR and communications campaign surrounding Bench Open House, managing media relations, paid and organic influencer outreach, university engagement, stakeholder communications and event promotion.

We developed a targeted fashion and lifestyle PR campaign to build anticipation ahead of the event, securing coverage across leading Manchester titles including The Manc, Secret Manchester and Manchester Confidential. Journalists from the Manchester Evening News, Manchester Confidential and Salford University’s student media also attended, giving them direct access to the collection and the Bench brand experience.

To connect with the younger audience Bench wanted to reach, we promoted the event directly across Manchester’s student communities. Alongside targeted digital activity, our team distributed flyers at Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Manchester and the University of Salford, driving awareness among students beyond Bench’s existing social audience.

Our influencer and creator outreach brought together a carefully selected guest list of Manchester-based content creators, models, fashion figures and members of the city’s creative community. By combining established influencers with emerging local talent, students and genuine fans of the brand, we created a guest mix that felt authentic and encouraged natural social content throughout the event.

We also commissioned a paid content partnership with Big Fat Jenna, who created a mix of Reel and Story content to promote Bench and the event to her highly engaged audience. Jenna styled pieces from the Revival collection, introducing the range to a highly relevant fashion and lifestyle audience beyond Bench’s existing community.

Alongside creator activity, we managed communications with the campaign’s partners and stakeholders, ensuring the charitable purpose, product offer and wider Revival story remained central to the launch.

Creating the Bench Brand World

Manchester Social’s three-floor tattoo studio was transformed into an immersive Y2K-inspired Bench house party.

The ground floor became a relaxed retail space where guests could shop the Revival collection, while hangout areas encouraged people to stay, explore and create content. The basement hosted a packed party with a live DJ, and the tattoo studio became part of the experience, offering guests a choice of complimentary Bench tattoos designed especially for the event.

The creative direction drew on the era that made Bench famous, reworked for the younger generation now discovering the brand. Lava lamps, retro magazines, vintage games consoles, flyposters, throwback technology and 00s cultural references filled the venue.

Directional floor vinyls guided guests through the building, while branded mirror stickers, social prompts and Bench graphics extended the identity through the stairwells, bathrooms, retail areas and party spaces. Rather than simply decorating the venue, we created a complete and highly shareable Bench brand world.

Drinks partner Żubrówka added another established lifestyle name to the experience, while Isovibe and Sunday Rain provided products for the first 50 purchases.

Fashion With a Local Purpose

The sample sale supported Mustard Tree, a Manchester charity working working to combat poverty and prevent homelessness across Greater Manchester.

Every penny raised through sales was donated to the charity, giving the campaign a meaningful local purpose and strengthening Bench’s connection with the Manchester community.

We incorporated this partnership into the campaign messaging and media story, ensuring the launch generated awareness not only for the Revival collection but also for Mustard Tree’s work across the region.

The Results

More than 300 guests attended Bench Open House, generating over 75 pieces of organic creator content and press coverage with a combined reach of more than one million.

The paid Big Fat Jenna Reel generated 44,379 views, reached 29,423 accounts and received 1,303 likes, 108 saves, 22 comments and six reposts.

More than two-thirds of its views came from non-followers, extending the campaign beyond her existing audience. Women accounted for 94.5% of viewers, while people aged 18–34 represented more than 80% of the audience, demonstrating that the partnership successfully reached the campaign’s target demographic.

The integrated campaign secured valuable regional media coverage, engaged journalists and influencers, reached students across Manchester’s three universities and connected the Revival collection directly with a new generation of consumers.

The event strengthened Bench’s position within Manchester’s fashion and creative scene while raising money for Mustard Tree. What began as a sample sale became a complete PR, influencer and community campaign for the brand.

Planning a fashion launch, influencer campaign or youth-focused brand activation? Explore more of our work or contact the Purple Riot team.