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BRAND LEADERSHIP2026

Vapoura

An English rum people find, rather than get sold.

Interim Head of Brand at a founder-led, B Corp-certified English rum. Brand and marketing ownership on a £90K budget across paid, organic, partnerships and events.

3 weeks
From joining to a live campaign
9
Unpaid press placements in a month
56M+
Combined monthly readership
1,000+
New subscribers from the competition
Campaign strategyPartnershipsPressPaid social
THE BRIEF

A founder-led English rum, three weeks from a campaign.

Vapoura is an English rum with two expressions and a moth on the label, founded by Ed and Olly. I came in as interim Head of Brand with marketing ownership on a £90K budget: paid, organic, email, DTC, partnerships and events, working as the only brand person in the business.

The brand's strongest asset was never price or provenance claims. It was discovery. A rum you come across, in a room worth being in, with a story worth repeating.

Found, not advertised. That was the brief, and the budget made it the only honest route.
THE WORK

After Stories Vol.1, with The Mandrake.

Scoped and delivered within three weeks of joining: a partnership with The Mandrake hotel, a six-track EP pressed by The Vinyl Factory, a cocktail menu at Waeska, a press and launch event, and a competition with a hotel stay as the prize.

Alongside it, the paid account moved from ad-hoc creative to structured testing with the agency, retention flows were rebuilt in Klaviyo, and the product pages were reworked ahead of a range relaunch.

  • Partnerships extended through Daylesford, Virgin Hotels and Public House Group.
  • A creator campaign built as a pipeline, chosen for fit rather than follower count.
  • Reporting structured for founders around reach, resonance and return.
THE RESULTS

What the first months produced.

Nine unpaid press placements in a month from a single campaign brief, including Forbes, City AM and The Drinks Business, with a combined monthly readership of 56M+. The competition added over 1,000 subscribers.

On paid, blended ROAS moved from 0.81x to 1.24x and cost per new customer fell 20% once creative testing was structured.

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