Roche

For agencies operating within the hospitality sector, success relies on a balance of creative storytelling, deep industry relationships, and operational agility. At the forefront of this specialist arena is Roche Communications, a London-based PR and marketing agency with over three decades of established expertise.

Founded in 1993 by Managing Director Rochelle Cohen, Roche Communications specialises in delivering high-impact, integrated media campaigns for a diverse roster of clients. Spanning traditional media relations, influencer marketing, social media strategy, and brand partnerships, the agency manages a portfolio of restaurants, bars, pubs, and hotels both in the UK and overseas, ranging from burgeoning high-street restaurant concepts and award-winning gastropubs to luxury international hotels.

The challenge

In an industry where editorial staff move frequently and media landscapes shift rapidly, Roche Communications faces a clear set of challenges. The agency required a reliable platform to ensure its communications remained targeted and that its media data was constantly updated. In addition, the sheer volume of campaign outputs meant that tracking, capturing, and evaluating earned media coverage manually was becoming an inefficient use of valuable consultant hours.

To maintain its reputation as trusted brand guardians, Cohen and her team set out to find a solution that could streamline their media relations from conception to reporting.

The ultimate aim was to elevate the precision of their media outreach while establishing a trusted, real-time method for media monitoring.

‘Our key objective is to deliver targeted pitching — ensuring we reach the right media with the right stories,’ Cohen says.

‘Crucially, we also need to capture every single piece of coverage on behalf of our clients so we can forward it on in a timely manner and report back accurately.’

This need for data accuracy, distribution agility, and rapid coverage tracking led to the agency choosing Vuelio as their core platform.

Solution

Implementing the platform transformed the way Roche Communications approaches its daily workflow and campaign execution. Rather than treating media databases as static repositories, the team integrated the platform into the very heart of its account management, utilising its dynamic features to orchestrate highly segmented, bespoke media campaigns.

The day-to-day utility of the platform stretches across the entire lifecycle of a PR campaign, proving particularly invaluable during major brand launches or regional expansions:

‘On a day-to-day basis, we use the platform to create tailored media lists and generate comprehensive coverage reports,’ Cohen explains.

‘Different stories require entirely different distribution lists, and we have found this platform to be incredibly helpful, particularly when looking after a venue in a new region where we might not have established day-to-day media contacts.’

For a hospitality agency, regional adaptability is also critical. When a London-centric client expands into a new territory, such as opening a boutique hotel or a lifestyle venue in a different region, the agency must instantly build a network of regional food critics, local lifestyle editors, and community influencers.

The platform allows Roche Communications to seamlessly bridge this gap, granting them immediate access to verified, up-to-date contact information outside their standard geographical circles.

Beyond list building, the agency also heavily relies on the platform’s advanced search functionalities, to help refine their media strategies. Instead of a generic outreach methodology, the platform empowers the team to adopt a research-led, highly context-driven approach to seeking which journalists to connect with. This is drawn from the platform’s ability to track historical content and editorial trends.

‘The platform is incredibly intuitive and easy to use, and there are always real human beings you can talk to should you need support,’ says Cohen.

‘The lists are highly accurate, and the search function for topic coverage is exceptionally helpful when we are looking to place a specific feature. Being able to see which journalists have written around similar topics significantly speeds up our outreach and improves the accuracy of our pitching.’

By analysing what individual journalists have recently written regarding specific culinary trends or innovations, Roche’s publicists can tailor their angles perfectly to match an editor’s active interests, dramatically increasing their success rate.

Results

The tangible benefits of embedding the platform into Roche Communications’ operational ecosystem are felt across both internal agency efficiency and external client satisfaction. By moving away from manual data verification and fragmented tracking methods, the agency has unlocked significant qualitative and quantitative gains.

‘Coverage comes in quickly, which is absolutely vital for us to monitor potential crisis situations and ensure we aren’t chasing journalists for coverage that has already appeared,’ Cohen emphasises.

This rapid notification system serves a dual purpose. From a risk management perspective, it allows Roche to act as an agile advisory partner, identifying and mitigating potential PR crises before they escalate. From a relationship-building perspective, it protects the agency’s reputation as a fast, high-quality responder.

Using Vuelio, the team can automatically capture comprehensive coverage, meaning that clients receive rapid, accurate updates on their media presence, reinforcing the agency’s value.

For an agency like Roche Communications, which prides itself on long-term client retention (with many clients remaining on their roster for over fifteen years) the platform has proven to be a useful asset, providing the data, editorial insight, and speed necessary to maintain their reputation in hospitality PR.